Government Technology Volume 9.6

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Times like these Time of austerity, savings, cuts, spending reviews – these are the buzz words of the day. You see them in magazine and newspaper articles, hear them during radio and TV news bulletins, and say them when discussing the state of the country and your organisation with your colleagues.

You will also find them throughout the pages of this issue of Government Technology, which is filled with articles explaining how you can get the most out of your budget. For example, on page 28 we look at the importance of software asset management within government and how the public sector can take steps to regain control of their software assets, potentially saving costs. On page 65 you can read about how procurers can purchase smarter through implementing e-sourcing and buying collectively.

Times may not be great at the moment but with best practice and innovative thinking there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

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Government Technology Online If you would like to subscribe to Government Technology magazine please contact Public Sector Information Limited, 226 High Road, Loughton, Essex IG10 1ET. Tel: 0208 532 0055, Fax: 0208 532 0066, or visit the Government Technology website at: ! NEWS ! FEATURES ! PROFILES ! CASE STUDIES ! EVENTS ! AND MORE

www.governmenttechnology.co.uk PUBLISHED BY PUBLIC SECTOR INFORMATION LIMITED 226 High Rd, Loughton, Essex IG10 1ET. Tel: 020 8532 0055 Fax: 020 8532 0066 EDITOR Sofie Lidefjard ASSISTANT EDITOR Angela Pisanu PRODUCTION EDITOR Karl O’Sullivan PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Reiss Malone PRODUCTION DESIGN Jacqueline Grist

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CONTENTS GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY 9.6

7 NEWS 11 GOOD COMMUNICATION AWARDS This year’s winners have been announced

17 INFORMATION ASSURANCE Ahead of IA10 we take a look at the key issues to be addressed at the event

22 IT SECURITY Two-factor authentication is the means by which an organisation can ensure that its users are who they say they are

24 IP SECURITY If you’re thinking of procuring a new surveillance system you may want to consider an IP solution

26 SOCITM This year’s Socitm conference is dedicated to helping IT professionals maintain service delivery, through informative seminars, best practice and networking

28 SOFTWARE LICENSING Phil Heap of FAST Ltd, explains the importance of software asset management within government and how the public sector can take steps to regain control of their software assets After a four year sabbatical, the FAST Ltd Annual Conference returns on 3 November

39 SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT If you are interested in the delivery and support of IT services, and the essential concepts behind service management you should attend this year’s itSMF UK conference

45 DATA CENTRES The British Computer Society’s Data Centre Specialist Group advises on how to improve energy efficiency

49 VIRTUALISATION What is a hypervisor and what operational benefits can it deliver to an organisation?

51 IP EXPO We preview the UK’s largest end-to-end IT infrastructure event where you can learn about IP Networks, Virtualisation, Cloud, Wireless and Storage technologies

57 GREEN IT

75 ELECTRONIC COUNTING What can we learn from the councils that have successfully implemented e-counting for both statutory and non-statutory elections?

79 CALL CENTRES Call Centre & Customer Management Expo showcases improvements that can be made within your call centre

85 DATA MOBILISATION Are police forces getting best value from their data mobilisation suppliers?

89 EVENTS

The British Computer Society’s Green IT Specialist Group explains how end-users can green their workspace

Discover how IT infrastructure solutions can help you achieve key business objectives at 360°IT

Green IT Expo is the UK’s leading showcase of sustainable computing and environmentally-friendly IT solutions

The World of Learning Conference & Exhibition is the essential event for all senior learning decision-makers and buyers

62 PAYMENTS RSM 2000 Ltd discusses the easy way to process card and Direct Debit payments

65 PROCUREMENT As purse strings are tightening there are ways to make your money go further, says Due North

69 OPEN SOURCE Achieving significant efficiency savings from IT is possible, says LinuxIT

71 UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS There are clear benefits to be had from unified communications, argues Redstone Converged Solutions

Beyond 2010 is a two-day conference focusing on how the innovative use of digital technologies can help public service providers deliver more for less The Netcoms Show will cover a wide variety of areas affecting the network infrastructure sector, including data centres, VoIP, IP security and UPS At Softworld Autumn 2010 you can discuss your business needs with leading providers of accounting and finance systems Promote ICT as the key for cost savings and business transformation while improving frontline services at Public Sector ICT 2010

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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Salford addresses crime prevention alford Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership is reaping the benefits of a multi award winning crime prevention project. Using state of the art technology and up to date information, the system has resulted in a reduction in crime rates as well as in the fear of crime.

“What we needed was a map based solution with an incident pinpointing tool that enabled us to quickly and accurately locate an incident, identify possible high quality CCTV coverage and the means to request coverage from any camera owner,” commented Paul Coward, corporate GIS consultant at Salford City Council.

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“The National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) holds the whole thing together enabling us to accurately locate an incident, identify cameras in the vicinity and secure footage for crime detection. The system has led to better liaison between partner organisations and agencies resulting in proactive monitoring and increased use of existing resources for applications such as emergency planning, insurance claim investigation and targeting benefit fraud.”

As part of the project, Salford developed an online service, accessible via the Council’s website, which enabled visitors to identify and record CCTV camera locations on a map before adding contact and camera information.

New council website is a lean, mean, targeted machine anchester City Council has launched its new-look website, making access to information easier and clearer. The changes follow an extensive user survey carried by Manchester City Council and Socitm and a breakdown of who visits the website, when and why.

Councillor Bernard Priest, executive member for Finance and Human Resources at Manchester City Council, said: “This is a win-win situation where residents have an extremely efficient tool for constant access to council services, which also allows them to report concerns or pay bills online at any time of the day.

“This then, in turn has major efficiency benefits in reducing the volume of calls received by council staff during the day.”

A simplified, wide-screen format is the basis of the design, along with a navigation bar where all of the council’s services can be seen and broken down into specific categories. These

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categories are then ranked in priority, so that the most searched for items will appear first in a list of options.

Other changes include a link on the footer of each page, so that visitors can share information with a variety of social networking sites including Twitter, Facebook and Google Buzz.

The website redesign is part of an ongoing investment in technology.

This includes a digital TV service, which allows residents to use their TVs to contact the council. The service is available through any TV with Sky or Virgin Interactive and can also be used via mobile phones or a Nintendo Wii.

www.governmenttechnology.co.uk

NEWSINBRIEF Sensitive medical records left at bus stop The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust in breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA) after the loss of over 100 patient records.

A CD, which contained scans of 112 patient records from the Intensive Care Unit of New Cross Hospital’s Heart and Lung Unit, was discovered at a bus stop near the hospital. It was unencrypted with no password protection.

Mick Gorrill, head of Enforcement at the ICO said: “The fact that this information was several years old is of no consequence – patients’ personal data should always be handled in accordance with the Data Protection Act. I am pleased that the Trust has agreed to take remedial steps to ensure such an incident does not happen again.”

The Trust has agreed to sign a formal Undertaking outlining that it will now process personal information in line with the DPA.

Get on board with Get online week This year, the fourth annual Get online day has grown to become a full Get online week. More than 3,000 Get online week events will be held across the country between 18 and 24 October, helping tens of thousands of people to get started with computers and the internet.

The campaign – from UK online centres – is backed by Race Online 2012 partners including the BBC, the Post Office and mobile network Three. For more information visit www.ukonlinecentres.com/getonlineweek.

Digital divide between Wales and UK narrows Ofcom research has revealed the digital divide between Wales and the UK is narrowing.

Ofcom’s Communications Market Report into the TV, radio, broadband and telecoms industries in Wales found that in 12 months, the gap between broadband take up in Wales, which had 64 per cent, and the UK as a whole, which had 71 per cent, decreased from ten to seven percentage points.

Wales was also found to have the highest proportion of mobile-only households in the UK with 19 per cent compared to a UK average of 14 per cent. Take-up of digital television and mobile broadband was also found to be higher in Wales compared with the other UK nations. Wales has the highest mobile broadband take-up of any nation in the UK with 16 per cent, a five percentage point increase compared with 2009.

Take up of services in Wales has continued to increase in the last 12 months, with the take-up of broadband in rural Wales at 69 per cent and urban Wales at 62 per cent. Consumers in rural Wales are more likely to own a mobile phone and take-up has increased from 89 per cent to 93 per cent in 12 months to surpass the level of take up of mobile phones across the whole of the UK of 89 per cent. 37 per cent of Welsh people also now use a social network site, a 50 per cent increase compared with 12 months ago.

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Innovative technology competition launched Technology Strategy Board competition is to award up to £18 million of funding to support the development of innovative technologies that could create new growth areas for the UK economy.

Collaborative applications are sought from organisations operating in technology areas where the UK has considerable strengths, such as advanced materials, biosciences, electronics, photonics and electrical systems, high value manufacturing, information and communications technology, and nanotechnology.

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David Bott, the Technology Strategy Board’s director of Innovation Programmes, said: “We are particularly keen to hear from organisations with ideas for ‘enabling technologies’.”

“An enabling technology is one that can lead to the creation of other products and processes that support future development.

In this way, it establishes long term opportunities for economic development.”

The competition opens on 12 October and aims to attract innovations from a variety of businesses with novel ideas that have reached proof-of-concept stage.

Thousands go online with Customer Accounts he expanding range of Birmingham council services that can now be accessed via the internet at www.birmingham.gov.uk have proved a big hit with customers who are clicking online in ever increasing numbers since the service went live four months ago.

Many customers are also creating their own online accounts, enabling them to see the status of most service requests they’ve made, regardless of whether

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they originated as phone calls, personal visits or via the web. Over 4,000 user accounts have now been opened and around 50,000 online service requests have been raised by customers.

Stephen Hughes, chief executive of Birmingham City Council, said: “This is a classic example of how Business Transformation is improving services for citizens and working conditions for employees, saving time and taxpayer money in the process.

BCS offers new specialist qualifications o accommodate the growth in IT service management in recent years and the demand for professional qualifications to support those working in this sector, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, has launched the first three of its suite of six new specialist qualifications in IT Service Management. The three qualifications are Service Desk & Incident Management, Change Management and Service Level Management.

Michiel van der Voort, director, International and Professional Development at the Institute, said: “We have worked closely with our accredited training partners and examiners to develop a set of qualifications that directly support the skills development of service management professionals worldwide.

They provide industry recognition of specialist skills and knowledge and will help individuals and organisations gain the credit they deserve.”

The qualifications, which focus on

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specific job roles, draw on the broad range of good practice in service management. They complement the ITIL® scheme and provide an ideal stepping stone between the ITIL Foundation and ITIL Intermediate Qualifications in IT Service Management. All three have been endorsed as ITIL Complementary Products each attracting 1.5 credits towards the ITIL Expert award. However, they are not limited to ITIL; they also embrace COBIT®, ISO/IEC 20000, and SFIA/SFIAplus.

The remaining three qualifications will launch in autumn 2010.

www.governmenttechnology.co.uk

NEWSINBRIEF Governments urged to help with broadband development The secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has urged governments to aid broadband development. Speaking in London recently, Hamadoun Touré called upon heads of states to provide a clear and stable regulatory framework to encourage the development of broadband networks around the world “ICT and broadband are the decisive factors for the development of all industries, and encouraging private companies to develop infrastructure helps create profits and jobs, which will help nations around the world to meet the Millennium Development Goals,” he said.

“Just as mobile technology dominated the last decade, so broadband technology, particularly mobile broadband, will dominate this decade. But the growth in mobile networks would never have happened without investment from enterprises.”

“However, criminals can be anywhere and viruses can infect even high-level firms, as we saw in the Google and China incident. Security is very fragile at the moment, and it is vital we tackle it to protect consumers, businesses and governments.”

Shared ICT services bring saving for Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth Borough Council has joined forces with Norfolk County Council in order to provide ICT services in the most resilient and cost effective way for people in the borough. The County Council will manage the Borough Council’s systems and infrastructure, with current Great Yarmouth Borough Council staff becoming part of the County Council’s ICT team.

Barry Stone, Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s deputy leader, said: “Sharing the County Council’s networks and technology, and the pooling of expertise of staff from both councils, will make the Borough Council more resilient and the savings identified as part of this arrangement will be reinvested into improving the way the Borough Council uses IT. “In the longer term we hope that this will enable us to offer more services electronically and online, and equally benefit our staff that need to access information during their daily tasks out of the office.”

Over £1 million worth of savings have been identified over five years by migrating the Borough Council onto the County Council’s IT systems, with these savings being reinvested in an improved ICT infrastructure for Great Yarmouth Borough Council. It has also resulted in further savings of £325,000 over five years for the Borough Council’s total budget.

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GOOD COMMUNICATION AWARDS

CONNECTING WITH CITIZENS The 2010 Good Communication Awards celebrated the public sector’s efforts towards effective and diverse communication with its citizens and workforce AT BOTH NATIONAL AND LOCAL LEVEL, government needs to communicate effectively with citizens and staff to keep them informed.

To do so, they must embrace a broad range of techniques, technologies and professional skills. Making sure these channels are accessible, easy to use and represent value for money requires a huge amount of dedication, professionalism and communications expertise.

Recognising the public sector’s efforts towards effective communication with its citizens and its workforce, the Good Communication Awards, sponsored by Polycom, took place 15 July at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.

Presented by BBC newscaster Nicholas Owen, the awards recognised success in four areas (Print, Public Relations, IT and Telecoms) and applauded individuals and organisations that have demonstrated effectiveness and innovation.

MULTIPLE SUCCESS Westminster City Council celebrated double success, taking home the award for Local Authority of the Year, sponsored

by Polycom, and Council Publication of the Year, sponsored by St Ives Group.

In 2008, the council decided to proactively target major public perceptions. This strategy recognised that PR could help drive public satisfaction, and trust, in local services.

The Council’s publication, Westminster’s Reporter has never been more popular, thanks to a much improved distribution model and a radical overhaul of content and design, which brings it in line with private sector publications rather than traditional council magazines.

In times when most departmental budgets are being scrutinised, Westminster’s core PR budget has actually been increased to £2 million, as the council has recognised the value that the team delivers. For this investment, it has supported a six per cent increase in overall satisfaction since 2007 and driven a 13 per cent increase in the resident informed rating over the same period.

For excellence and advancements in all areas of communication, Westminster City Council was named Local Authority of the Year 2010.

The London Borough of Hillingdon also enjoyed double success, scooping the Contact Centre Technology Award, sponsored by Clement Clarke Communications and the Website Accessibility Award, sponsored by Adapt-IT. The contact centre at Hillingdon is the hub of the council and manages the first point of contact and customer management across

Presented by BBC newscaster Nicholas Owen, the awards recognised success in four areas (Print, Public Relations, IT and Telecoms) and applauded individuals and organisations that have demonstrated effectiveness and innovation an incredibly wide range of services. Last year the centre managed over one million contacts through a range of channels, and set itself the difficult task of expanding the range of services within the existing budget. The use of technology was pivotal in building staff capacity without increasing head count. The result is an impressive increase in performance and efficiency.

Hillingdon aims to provide information and services to as much of the community as possible, including harder to reach groups.

To do this, it provides additional online tools which aim to promote and provide greater access to its online services.

A GOOD COMMUNICATOR The Local Government Communicator Of The Year, sponsored by Polycom, was awarded to Amanda Aviss from West Sussex County Council. Since being appointed to

the role of Head of Communications some ten years ago, Amanda Aviss has managed and developed a dynamic team fit to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

In the past year the team has produced its own web TV station, containing over 50 videos ranging from road safety films to a video about how the council will tackle potholes. All members of the communications team have taken on the role of reporters, directors and editors in the creation of the videos. The team has also produced 85 audio press releases explaining the role of the council and provided these to local and national radio stations.

The Strategic Communications Campaign, sponsored by Polycom, was awarded to City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council for its ‘b someone’ education campaign. Bradford’s campaign was designed to encourage a particular sector to take responsibility for their own educational attainment and skills

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Flexible working policies can help public sector organisations become more efficient by enabling property rationalisation and reducing travel budgets. West Berkshire Council anticipates 85 per cent of staff will work flexibly by the end of 2010 reducing the council’s office space by an estimated 40 per cent.

This change will happen through the implementation of a mobile working solution developed in partnership with Vodafone. Bolton Council is improving services, cutting the costs of computer connectivity by £76,000 a year and seeing a 25 per cent reduction in office space by using Vodafone Secure Remote Access.

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transform how you communicate with the community. Cambridgeshire County Council wanted a truly unified communications solution, enabling its employees to effectively communicate, share ideas and interact together from anywhere at any time.

By implementing Vodafone’s converged network the council improved collaboration and delivered £1.2 million cost savings.

Most organisations realise they need to improve and develop their communications strategies but find it difficult to uncover where the issues lie or they may simply

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need help in developing a sound financial business case. Vodafone’s Total Communications assessment approach, conducted through a series of Discovery Workshops and supported by your key business stakeholders, is aimed at changing the way in which organisations consider communications. It will help you identify the specific challenges facing your business and provide you with the support you need to help your organisation move forward in the most cost effective and speed efficient manner.

Register at vodafone.co.uk/ totalcomms for a free consultation to assess your Discovery Workshop needs, visit us at stand 69 at Socitm or call us on 08450 840 157.

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GOOD COMMUNICATION AWARDS

development. It used local celebrities to get its message across. An independent evaluation of the project demonstrated that it had raised awareness, and increased aspirations.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s East Riding News took home the award for Council Publication Journalism, sponsored by St Ives Group. East Riding News is produced every month and acts as a vehicle for the council to inform residents without bombarding them with mailshots. Despite being financed by advertising revenue, the publication manages to cram its pages with an incredible amount of news for the benefit of its residents.

DESIGN AND INNOVATION Moving on to design, the Council Publication Design Award, sponsored by St Ives Group was awarded to West Sussex County Council for its Taste West Sussex title. Produced by the Council Communications team, Taste West Sussex acts as a showcase for local producers and gives residents vital information about the goods and services available locally. It has proved to be a successful demonstration of the way the council is working to support the rural economy during tough financial times.

Harrow Council’s Have You Heard? Council Tax booklet was awarded the Print Innovation Award, sponsored by St Ives Group. Harrow took a publication which is usually executed in a traditional and often boring manner and instead produced a creative, informative and, most importantly, useful guide to council services.

West Sussex County Council scooped the Local Authority PR Team Of The Year, sponsored

by Polycom. In the past two years, the press office team at West Sussex has developed into a dynamic, multi-media unit, which produces a range of high quality publications.

Through advertising and working with local businesses, many of these are self-financing.

INTERNAL COMMS The Ministry of Justice took home the Internal Communications Award for its Insight Staff Magazine. Insight is an internal publication which provides a 360-degree view of the MoJ, using a mixture of news and features to illustrate its purpose and priorities. A new design needed to attract readers without alienating the faithful, and without giving the impression that money was being lavished on glossy internal communications in a time of recession.

The Government To Citizen Communication Award was scooped by City of Edinburgh Council for its Scottish Youth Parliament Campaign. The aim of the project was to increase the number of citizens participating in local democracy. Incorporating design, print, radio, and social networking, the campaign was a huge success, and completed on a very tight budget.

Lambeth Council was awarded the Mixed Media Campaign Award for its ‘Your borough, Your budget, Your choice’ campaign.

The Council gave community groups the opportunity to vote on which project they thought should win funding from the authority.

The campaign used multimedia tools, and in particular, video, to motivate residents to act.

The Mobile Technology Award, sponsored

by Vodafone, was taken home by Aylesbury Vale District Council. Having researched and carried out a short pilot, the winning authority used mobile technology to successfully engage with young people – a sector traditionally considered difficult to reach.

CONTACT CENTRES Kent County Council scooped the Contact Centre Training Award, sponsored by ISV Software. Acknowledging that each individual works at a different pace, Kent CC employs a variety of training methods, which include classroom based learning, role plays, task books, coaching, buddying, nursery environments, site visits, volunteering days, video coaching and ‘on the job’ exercises.

London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames won the Contact Centre Of The Year Award, sponsored by Interactive Intelligence. Five years ago, Richmond launched a customer service programme focused on improving call centre standards and delivering greater value for money. A new contact centre and web self-service platform were introduced, and in a mystery shopping exercise conducted in March this year, residents gave the centre a 96 per cent satisfaction rating.

The Telecoms Innovation Award, sponsored

by Vodafone, was won by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. Solihull has implemented a remote working system for field workers, where all the data becomes available in a central system in ‘near real time’. This innovative application has the potential to

deliver huge benefits both for council inspectors and for the environment of residents.

WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP The IT Partnership Award was awarded to Hertfordshire County Council/Connect Digitally for their Online School Admission project.

Online School Admissions started life as one of the several National Projects designed to increase take up in council services online. With full utilisation by its 152 partners, predicted additional savings of around £21m are possible.

Partnership working and the transference of solutions have been critical to its success.

Salford City Council won the Local Authority Website Of The Year, sponsored by Media Citizens and Quatrosystem. During 2009, the winning authority looked to improve the standard of content, and pruned a considerable amount in an attempt to simplify its website.

Stricter workflow controls ensure that content meets corporate grammar guidelines, and in 2009, unique visitor numbers increased by 17 per cent over the previous calendar year.

The IT Project Innovation Award, sponsored By H20 Networks, was taken home by North Yorkshire County Council for NYnet Broadband. As well as delivering a massively improved service to schools, care centres and libraries, the fruit of this years winning project will be offered to nearly 330,000 households and 50,000 SMEs. It has the potential to deliver community benefits on a massive scale.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: www.communicator.gcawards.co.uk

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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GOOD COMMUNICATION AWARDS

COLLABORATIVE WORKING The ‘Master Vendor’ approach makes sense for public sector print, says St Ives Direct ‘MUTUALISATION’, ‘THE MINIMUM Council’ and ‘Vendor Neutral Master Vendor’ are just some of the terms that have found their way into government parlance recently to describe collaborative working across traditional stakeholder boundaries. Faced with unprecedented budget cuts and the need to find innovative ways of reducing costs, there’s never been a more appropriate time for public sector organisations to apply this approach to the printing, media and communications sector, says Tim Dickens, director of Sales for the Public Sector at St Ives Direct.

“For public sector organisations to benefit from economies of scale, they need to form consortia that have real business to place,” says Dickens. “At present, the market relies on many framework agreements that are bound together

by EU regulations. Whilst it’s widely recognised that, in principle, frameworks provide a safe legal playing field, they do increase the cost of sale significantly and don’t guarantee any business – which doesn’t deliver a best value model for any of the parties involved.”

Instead, Dickens insists the public sector should look to combine its contracts and outsource them to a specialist ‘Master Vendor’ – a prime contractor if you like – who can then act as principal between the client organisation and the supply chain. This can free them from the tedium of EU regulations and drive out millions of pounds in savings, he says.

OPPORTUNITY “In these straightened times, controlling print spend is one of the public sector’s best opportunities to soften the blow of budget cuts. In our experience, this approach delivers cashable savings of up to 25 per cent in the first year – with further efficiency savings gained throughout the lifetime of the contract.”

Dickens says the kind of prime contractor approach adopted by St Ives means they manage the marketing, creative and publishing departments – right down to the realms of document management, photocopying and internal printing that typically goes on in a government organisation.

“You might say that by putting our arms around that whole piece and managing it centrally, we relieve public sector departments of the complex legal processes involved in tendering. By outsourcing the end-toend process to specialists like ourselves, public sector organisations immediately have one point of contact to manage the print supply chain, both within our own group of companies and beyond.”

In today’s economy, Dickens says quality and competitive pricing are taken as read: “Print managers now expect much more in the way of added value via total solutions from a single source. As well as providing the best

print production facilities in Europe, our public sector business unit acts as a consultancy, an agency and a management company. By focusing on customer service, rather than the print industry’s traditional pre-occupation with production, we’re able to offer a total marketing services and production solution.

“Public sector customers also expect us to be familiar with the specialist needs of government organisations, their idiosyncrasies, and the specific problems they face. That’s why we’ve made sure our specialist teams can talk the customer’s language, have public sector-specific knowledge, and can customise solutions to suit their needs. They use innovative thinking and technology to deliver a wide range of high quality products and services in consultancy, data management, campaign management, media production, fulfilment, distribution and field marketing.”

TAILORED SOLUTION Dickens continues: “Whatever the customer’s particular need – be it market research, consultancy on point of sale materials, direct mail, giant media, magazines, books, multimedia and much more – we have a tailored solution. At the end of the day, our ultimate aim is to help our public sector customers maximise value from their print budgets by streamlining processes, driving out cost and exploiting economies of scale.

“We’ve already created a public sector centre of expertise by exploiting the experience

already inside the company and by recruiting outside experts. The public sector and utilities marketplace requires specialist skills when it comes to the tendering process, working with governance, contractual obligations and so forth. This attention to detail means that St Ives Direct has been highly successful in attracting public sector clients,” says Dickens.

“Having worked extensively with organisations like HMRC, the Central Office of Information, the Financial Services Authority and the Environment Agency, we’re able to put that experience and knowledge to use in other areas of the public sector. It means our staff have an in-depth understanding of the procurement process and how to engage with civil servants.

“All of which benefits both customers and ourselves because we avoid wasting one another’s time. At the end of the day, by pursuing only those opportunities that make sense, I believe the ‘Master Vendor’ approach helps deliver a best value model for all concerned,” Dickens concludes.

FOR MORE INFORMATION If you would like more information on how we can streamline your process to drive out cost and ensure economies of scale please contact Tim Dickens on 07802 290318.

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INFORMATION ASSURANCE

ENABLING EFFICIENCY THROUGH RISK MANAGEMENT Jon Ashton of CESG, the UK Government’s National Technical Authority for Information Assurance, outlines the key issues and priorities the IA10 event sets out to address THIS EDITION of Government Technology went to print on the eve of IA10, the government’s Information Assurance event.

Let’s take a look at the key issues and priorities that the event sets out to address.

EFFICIENCY IA10 is being held at a critical time for Information Assurance across the public sector. Government departments and wider government need to take bold decisions to achieve efficiencies through their ICT infrastructure and to meet the government’s future strategy for IT. This can only be achieved if senior decision makers are confident and capable in calculating and managing information risk.

Essential, much-needed efficiency savings can also be jeopardised if government fails to protect personal data and there is a loss of public confidence in our ICT systems.

The focus for IA10 is contained in the event title Enabling Efficiency through Risk Management. The event has been carefully shaped to enable organisations across government to achieve greater

efficiencies and squeeze more out of their ICT infrastructure whilst managing their information risks appropriately.

We are all being charged to do more with less. Government organisations are under pressure to reduce resources – whilst achieving greater efficiencies and improving the performance of their ICT infrastructure.

The IA10 event is designed to enable all those responsible for Information Risk Management across government to take more calculated, evidence-based risk decisions and to de-mystify some of the language and assumptions around technology and information security.

BUSINESS CONFIDENCE Speakers at IA10 will set out to highlight how the right Information Assurance should not be seen as a security tax but as an enabler for greater efficiency and business confidence. This message will be embedded right through the event. It forms the narrative for our keynote speakers and is then threaded through our stream sessions.

The austerity agenda will act as a forcing function, accelerating the drive to common

good requirements across government departments. Clearly, we can’t afford to build systems over and over again or to assure them several times. IA10 will drive home the message: “build it once...build it well...take the right life-cycle support approach”. If we can bring together government requirements and lead on developing a common good approach, then we can deliver more for less.

We are determined to make this happen.

We must take care that with all the talk of deficit and austerity there isn’t a sense that the government ICT agenda is stalled. Resources are tight, but there remains a commitment to improve the efficiency and quality of service delivery to the citizen by moving online. It is accepted across government that this can only be achieved if there is effective Information Assurance and Cyber-Network Defence in place.

CYBER-NETWORK DEFENCE This year, for the first time, Cyber-Network Defence is at the core of the flagship IA event. Directors from CESG and the Office of Cyber Security will together look to define the relationship between

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Do you really know who is accessing your systems?

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INFORMATION ASSURANCE

Cyber and Information Assurance.

At IA09 the Office of Cyber Security at the Cabinet Office was just a title on a PowerPoint slide. At IA10 delegates will hear the progress that is being made in developing strategies and policies, and other key outputs.

Input from the Minister for Security, Baroness Neville-Jones will provide delegates with a first-hand insight into the current national agenda for Information Assurance and Cyber-Network Defence.

INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP Just as the importance of Information Assurance is not being downgraded as a result of an austere economic climate, there is no change in the vital role that the private sector will play in its delivery.

This relationship has been strengthened over the past year. For example, we have established the Architects’ Group with industry – a commitment identified at IA09.

We are also developing a Cyber engagement strategy between government and industry.

Futhermore, there has been considerable engagement with industry in developing our future plans. A useful tool in achieving this was the Collaborative Communications Exercise that we launched at IA09 – those at last year’s event will remember how we embarked on a highly visual visioning exercise to bring clarity to our strategy and identify the challenges that we face.

Since IA09, 265 industry and government seniors have engaged with this project at our London office. This exercise has enabled us to capture a huge amount of experience and insight – which has been used to enrich our view, and inform and help shape our five year strategy. One of the key insights that has come through this work has been the amount of common ground between the public and private

sectors in terms of where current problems are and what needs to be done to put them right.

CESG – GCHQ IA10 plays an essential role in reinforcing the importance of Information Assurance and above all in preparing senior government risk owners and managers to deliver their responsibilities efficiently, capably and confidently. The IA flagship event allows us to highlight the contribution that CESG makes as the National Technical Authority for Information Assurance in supporting government. These events enable us to concentrate our resources in educating the most senior Information Assurance decision-makers from across central government and the wider public sector.

The event also highlights the way that GCHQ has significantly changed the way that it supports government – it now brings to bear the full range of its intelligence and assurance missions in providing Information Assurance and Cyber-Network Defence support for government.

At IA10 CESG will demonstrate the progress achieved in our Professionalisation Education and Training programme. We will share with delegates our developing schemes for certifying individuals. We are actively engaging with industry in taking these initiatives forward.

IA10 STREAMS Great care has been taken in planning IA10, so that delegates are given a clear narrative throughout the event, and provided with practical, pragmatic guidance that they can take away and implement when they return to their departments and organisations.

The first stream, Shared Services Risk Management, highlights how sharing services and data is critical to delivering better and more efficient government services. For some

government organisations, shared services are already becoming normal business (we have drawn on this existing expertise) but the pace is set to increase as the government’s ICT strategy gets traction. This will take shared services to a new level, and risk owners and managers need to understand what it means to achieve this step change. Sponsored by EADS, it considers how risk appetite, risk tolerance and risk management can be synchronised across the broad range of organisations.

In our second stream, entitled Building Secure systems – sponsored by McAfee – the focus is placed on how good architectural design can deliver world class IA at low cost – and, when coupled with good enterprise security management, delivers real business benefit.

Our third stream, Cyber-Network Defence, provides an insight into the real threats facing the networks of government organisations – and what can be done to protect them. Sponsored

by Detica, this stream is rich in practical examples, demonstrating how government departments have used Cyber Network-Defence as a vital part of their overarching IA strategy.

People are at the heart of good information risk management and in the current economic climate, human factors are taking an even greater significance. Our fourth stream, entitled People, Culture and Professionalisation, examines the current landscape and provides an opportunity for participants to discuss the implications.

In the next issue of Government Technology there will be a summary of the outcomes of IA10 and the priorities for all those responsible for directing and delivering Information Assurance across government.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: www.ia10.org.uk

Unlock the power of information T

RANSPARENCY and openness are key to the government’s drive to make local government more accountable to local taxpayers. Good information management will be vital to ensure its success and issues such as data quality, information sharing, records management and access to information need to be addressed. Now more than ever, local authorities need to look at ways in which they can make smart use of their information assets in supporting decision making.

A key element of delivering transparent services is access to information legislation.

It is likely that as the public sector makes more information available, we will see an increase in the number of requests. Complying

to comply. This is where we can help.

Freethatinfo.com is a business that specialises in assisting local authorities in managing their information resources whether it is about handling requests for information, improving information quality, establishing information asset lists or opening up information structures making it accessible to all. We also provide a Freedom of Information Compliance service that can help you meet your obligations and allow staff to concentrate on service delivery.

FOR MORE INFORMATION with the FOI, DPA or EIR appropriately is already demanding for some authorities and any increase will stretch their ability

Tel: 07961 133703 E-mail: contact@freethatinfo.com Web: www.freethatinfo.com

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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INFORMATION ASSURANCE

SECURING GOVERNMENT’S MOST SENSITIVE DATA MXI Security is the leader in providing superior secure USB drives designed to meet the highest security standards of even the most demanding customers IN ORDER TO ADDRESS the growing concern of losing critical data, governments world-wide are implementing stringent rules and regulations with severe penalties in aim to prevent the loss or theft of data when a portable storage device is lost.

For example, the UK Parliament recently imposed new penalties for infringements of the Data Protection Act (DPA), which will force organisations to pay up to £500,000 in fines for serious breaches of the DPA. SECURING COMMUNICATIONS CESG is the branch of GCHQ which works to secure the communications and information systems of the government and critical parts of UK national infrastructure. CAPS (CESG Assisted Product Service) links the cryptographic knowledge of CESG with the private sector’s expertise and resources to enable private sector companies to develop cryptographic products for use by Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) and other appropriate organisations. Providing independent evaluation that cryptographic products meet government standards, CESG then formally approves their use by UK Government agencies and the wider public sector.

MXI Security is the industry-leading provider of managed portable security solutions that focus on secure portable enterprise computing.

MXI solutions provide both government and enterprise clients with the highest security and privacy technology, protecting their data and providing peace-of-mind. With first-to-market technologies, MXI is a leader in the encrypted USB and biometric USB drive markets.

A pioneer in portable security, MXI recently received US Government FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validation for the Bluefly™ Security Processor, which powers MXI’s entire line of portable security devices.

For the first time UK Government agencies now have access to an encrypted USB device designed to tackle head-on the increasing number of threats to government security.

After a rigorous evaluation process, MXI Security received official (CAPS) certification from CESG, the UK’s National Technical Authority for Information Assurance, for the Stealth M600® encrypted USB drive.

Featuring Bluefly™ Portable Security Processor, the world’s first dedicated hardware security processor for USB devices, the Stealth M600 is designed to protect against all forms of malware. It provides advanced manageability capabilities such as device recycling, while

its unique integrated metal enclosure is durable, waterproof, and dustproof.

Gerard Reusing, MXI Security’s Londonbased president, says: “We developed the Stealth M600 encrypted USB device specifically to tackle the problem of portable data loss, head-on. The device provides full encryption at all times and cannot be used unless it is unlocked by its legitimate owner. Having MXI Security receive CAPS certification signifies that the UK Government understands the importance of securing data while maintaining portability. Government agencies and organisations now have access to technology that provides a totally secure way of protecting their most sensitive data.”

EXPERIENCE MXI Security has over 17 years of experience in storage products, which was an influencing factor in the decision to enter the USB market.

A key milestone in MXI’s history in security was the launch of their first biometric product – Stealth MXP Bio – seven years ago.

“The launch of our MXP product family four years ago raised the bar further still, and was the first step towards us adding more and more functionality to our USB sticks,” says Reusing.

MXI Security today offers a portfolio of managed portable security solutions that are positioned at the high end of the market, designed to meet the highest security and privacy standards. Product families include MXI Security Stealth M™ Series of encrypted flash drives; Stealth MXP Bio® encrypted biometric flash drive and Stealth™ HD external hard disk drive.

EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS “We spend a lot of time on the education side,” Mr. Reusing points out. “We firmly believe that the devices we sell are multifunction devices. They can be used not just for storage but also for remote access, for example, with very high security. There are some exciting developments in portable storage, and we’re at the forefront of them, elevating the USB stick to what essentially is a portable desktop, enabling people to carry their computing environment around with them wherever they go.”

On that note, MXI recently launched Stealth™ ZONE – a secure portable desktop solution.

Where as traditional desktop virtualisation solutions have typically required sizable investments in centralised computing resources, Stealth ZONE places the secure portable desktop directly onto MXI’s high-security FIPS 140-2

Level 3 validated Stealth USB devices offering both convenience for the user and lowered costs for the organisation. Users can launch Windows Embedded Standard 2009 directly from their USB device, knowing that they are logging on to a fully secure environment. Stealth ZONE is ideally suited for government agencies that need to protect mission-critical data, systems and applications without compromising portability.

Well-established in the United Kingdom with customers including the City of London Police, MXI Security serves the most security-demanding public and private organisations in the world.

FOR MORE INFORMATION MXI Security, Saracen House, Old Isleworth Middlesex TW7 6RJ Tel: 020 87589600 Web: www.mxisecurity.com

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

IT SECURITY

SECURITY THAT MAKES SENSE What’s the value of your security investment in firewalls and VPNs if they can be circumvented by a shared, stolen or recycled password? asks Jason Hart, senior VP, CRYPTOCard Europe AS THE GOVERNMENT TALKS about the need to reduce costs and optimise efficiencies, the requirement for ensuring government IT infrastructures, services and applications are secure, remains. This is particularly important as some government departments, in an attempt to save costs, either are or will be closing some of their offices and increasing their number of remote workers. Not to mention, again in the name of cost, many are also looking towards new technologies such as the use and development of G-cloud services and facilities.

SECURITY COMPLIANCE A case in point on the evolution in ways of working and the adoption of technologies lies within local governments. With efforts to

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improve access to information across various departments, the Government Connect Secure Extranet (GCSX) was born, however with that, the need for securing user access became apparent. Hence the Code of Connection guidelines came about in which they specified that in order to be compliant with data security requirements (for remote workers) two-factor authentication had to be used.

Two-factor authentication is the means by which an organisation can ensure that its users really are who they say they are. It does away with traditional static passwords and related password policies, and replaces them with two forms of user identification: a PIN, which is only known to the user, and a token, such as a keyfob, which in conjunction

with the PIN produces a password that is only valid for one time use. According to research undertaken by Tudor Rose and published by Bloor Research, within the local government sector the two main providers of these solutions are RSA with 37 per cent of the market, and CRYPTOCard with 24 per cent of the market.

COCO COMPLIANCE The same research has concluded that 91 per cent of local government organisations have adopted two-factor authentication as part of their CoCo compliance, a positive approach that may have contributed to the reduction in instances of breaches caused by unauthorised access to information. Of the 1,007 security breaches reported to

Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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IT SECURITY

the Information Commissioners Office to May 2010, only 132 of those cases involved local authorities, and even then, most times the breach was due to the loss or theft of portable computing and media devices.

Looking at the wider public sector, however, data security remains a hot topic. And with technology developments looking towards issues such as the G-cloud, the list of solutions that would be available in the cloud is being met with high levels of interest, not least because of one of the most popular cloud features – cost effectiveness. All that said though, before cloud can be fully embraced, one aspect that remains paramount in the list of things to consider is that of security.

With many cloud applications still only requiring usernames and passwords as their frontline security, the question needs to be asked: is that really enough to protect the access points of a cloud solution which has been entrusted to hold sensitive data? It’s hard enough protecting in-house systems but the perception of letting a third party look after your virtual assets is that the risk is decidedly higher. However, there is another question that runs parallel to this one that must also be considered: which is the higher cost – living with the risk of a breach or investing in a solution which mitigates that risk?

THE USER Coupled with that is the continued reliance on the users themselves to be passwordresponsible. The usual requirements being that they each have unique passwords, changed every 60-90 days and that they are of certain character combinations – a standard password policy. However, while these policies are common, the behaviour of the users is changing – and this change has come about as the web and its

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jason Hart is the senior Vice-President of Europe, and joined CRYPTOCard as part of the March 2006 Management buy-in which saw the merger of CRYPTOCard and WhiteHat Consulting Ltd. Jason brings more than 17 years of Information Security experience to the business. With a background in ethical hacking Jason brings a unique perspective to the CRYPTOCard organisation.

Prior to CRYPTOCard, Jason served as CEO of the information security services organisation, WhiteHat, where he was responsible for strategic and business development activities. WhiteHat grew to provide a full range of positive identification solutions, in a variety of formats for all types of organisations.

Prior to WhiteHat, Jason held senior positions within a number of organisations, including Ernst & Young’s Information Security Assurance and Advisory Services practice.

Jason has created and developed entire security frameworks as well as Information Security Assessment Methodology. Clients have included NHS, government, as well as a large

applications continue to grow and develop.

As users access business and personal applications for data that is hosted in the cloud – whether at home or at work – the line between the two worlds is fading fast.

The fact is that where a user may use a 5ecr3t Passw0rd for their Yahoo! account, there’s a high chance that this password will be the same one that they access their business applications – and business clouds – with. Needless to say, the risk of identity theft and fraud is higher than ever before as hackers today value the password above

number of FTSE 100 organizations.

Jason holds a degree in Micro Electronics, CISSP, CISM. Noted as a leading figure within the information security industry, Jason often speaks at security events around the world, advising individuals and organisations of the information security threats that exist. all else as the easiest and most effective way of breaching a security network.

This in turn comes directly back to the question of passwords being enough to protect access to the cloud. That said, it doesn’t mean government organisations need to shy away from utilising and developing G-cloud solutions. It just means that in order to help mitigate against the many risks that are faced in IT security today, perhaps G-cloud developers and users should take a leaf out of the CoCo book and consider stronger forms of security such as two-factor authentication.

You can’t secure what you can’t manage S ECURE PASSAGE is the leading provider of firewall and network device policy management solutions and is recognised by industry experts as a “security vendor to watch”.

Its flagship product, FireMon, is used internationally by public sector organisations – local and central governments, including councils, education, medical and law enforcement agencies – to engender effective network security.

Good firewall management not only optimises network security, it cuts costs and ensures the control, performance and life expectancy of firewall devices.

To meet the changing needs of the organisation, firewall policy rules are added, but outdated requests are rarely

removed. This results in security holes and traffic latency. By automatically auditing the rules, FireMon can provide you the tools to improve firewall performance.

FireMon simplifies and automates the analysis of configuration and change management processes to enhance security, optimise performance, and speed compliance reporting. FireMon analyses changes and

performs audits in real time; simplifies policy management; and enforces configuration governance across firewalls, switches, routers, and other network devices.

Sales of FireMon continue to grow demonstrating that despite the recession, government agencies are still recognising the need for effective firewall management solutions to protect against cyberthreats, achieve compliance and improve operational efficiency.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: +1 913 948 9570 Fax: +1 913 948 9571 E-mail: info@securepassage.com or sales@securepassage.com Web: www.securepassage.com

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

IP SECURITY

TIME TO SERIOUSLY CONSIDER IP Simon Shawley, general manager – UK and Ireland for Samsung Techwin Europe, addresses questions that users are likely to ask themselves at the beginning of the process of specifying a surveillance system THE MOST COMMON QUESTION that I and my colleagues are regularly asked is: “What is the break-even point where the number of cameras to be installed makes it cost effective to consider an IP/network solution instead of a system which is connected by a conventional analogue infrastructure?” Some people quote this as 20 cameras, some at 30, but in fact there is no simple answer to this question as there are so many factors that have to be taken into consideration, many of which will be affected by your operational requirements.

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS This article is therefore intended to suggest a wide ranging number of questions that your system designer needs to address before a decision can be made as to whether or not to go for an IP/network based system. These are: Do you intend to have one or more operators watching the live video around the clock, and if so, will all the operators be located in a single control room?

Other than security personnel located in your control room, do you have colleagues who if authorised to do so, would wish to have remote access to the live or recorded video?

Will the surveillance system be used for purposes other than security, e.g. health and safety compliance or management information, footfall management, parking control, etc?

Except when there is an incident that needs to be more closely observed, do you wish to be able to capture very high resolution recognition or even identification grade images of all activity in the field of view of the cameras, or will image quality, which enables an operator to just verify that an incident is taking place, be sufficient?

Do you need every second of video from all the cameras to be recorded 24/7?

Will you want to store recorded video for one week, one month, or even longer?

What is the bandwidth capacity of your existing network?

Will your network manager allow the surveillance system to share the available bandwidth with whatever else is being transmitted around the network?

Will the surveillance system be expected to interact with other security systems, e.g. access control, intruder alarms, perimeter protections systems, etc?

When you have the answers to these questions, and perhaps some others that are specific to your requirements, your system designer should be able to make some recommendations on how your system should be structured to match your requirements.

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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IP SECURITY

SOLUTIONS Now, let’s take a look at some of the key advantages of an IP based surveillance system.

There is potential for substantial savings on cabling installation costs as an existing network can be used instead of installing totally new cables. A single network cable is also able to carry video, audio and data, as well as provide telemetry and Power over Ethernet (PoE).

You have the opportunity to control and monitor the system from anywhere on the network.

Mission critical video recording can be stored at any location on the network and retrieved from any PC by an authorised user.

A high level of redundancy can therefore be introduced by choosing to simultaneously record and store video at multiple locations.

Also, IP based surveillance systems allow users to gain maximum benefit from the latest generation of high definition cameras.

A HYBRID APPROACH More often than not, the solution that is likely to be the most cost effective, as well as being fit for purpose, is likely to be a hybrid system where the best of both technologies are deployed. A hybrid system allows both IP and analogue cameras to be controlled from the same device and additional cameras can be hooked up at any time without the need for new long cable runs.

The recent advances in both cameras and digital video recording technology favour a hybrid approach. The WiseNet1 DSP chipset, for example, which has been incorporated into a large number of widely available analogue cameras and domes, provides technology that is ideal for a hybrid surveillance system.

This includes a practical time and cost saving feature such as BNC and Ethernet outputs so that video can be transmitted via coaxial cabling as well as over a network.

The H.264, MPEG4, MJPEG and JPEG compression methods incorporated into the WiseNet1 DSP provides users with the ability to simultaneously transmit images to multiple locations at various frame rates and at different resolutions including 1.3megapixel (1280 x 1024), 16.9 HD (1280 x 720), QVGA (320 x 240), SVGA (800x 600) and VGA (640 x 480).

With such a wide range of compression methods and resolutions to choose from, a number of different users, if authorised, will be able to simultaneously monitor live images at one location, record video evidence at another or view live and recorded images on a smartphone. At the same time JPEG images of an incident can be attached to an alarm e-mail notification with the additional facility of storing pre and post-alarm images on a camera’s internal SD memory card.

One of the most impressive features of the WiseNet1 DSP is its Intelligent Video Analytics capability, which includes Disappearing, Appearing, Cross Line and Enter/Exit detection.

A hybrid system allows both IP and analogue cameras to be controlled from the same device and additional cameras can be added at any time without the need for new long cable runs It also has a Scene Change tampering function which creates an alert if, for example, paint is sprayed on a camera lens or there is an unauthorised manual change of a camera angle.

The cameras and domes that incorporate the WiseNet1 DSP chipset are also likely to utilise a 1/3” Progressive Scan Mega CMOS. Progressive Scan prevents motion artefacts spoiling the quality of video of fast moving objects which can occur with standard CCTV cameras using the traditional interlacing method of processing video frames.

Full duplex bi-directional audio provides the option of interactive communication between a camera’s location and a control room.

A wide choice of four, eight and sixteen channel models are available each offering a long list of installer and operator friendly features, making it possible to pick the perfect unit for the application at hand. For example, data from ATM, POS or access control devices can be captured with the text data saved along with associated images to be played back if required at a later date.

Dual codec operation delivers different streams for both high performance recording and optimised transmission, whilst a built-in web-server allows live and playback viewing options with the ability to back up incidents via a web browser.

HYBRID NETWORK FRIENDLY DIGITAL RECORDING The latest generation of DVR and NVRs, both of which can sit very effectively within a hybrid surveillance solution, capitalise on high level H.264 compression to ensure superb picture quality, whilst minimising hard drive space and bandwidth requirements.

For information on Samsung’s comprehensive range of CCTV and IP based surveillance solutions systems, e-mail STEsecurity@samsung.com or phone +44 (0)1932 455308 or visit www.samsungsecurity.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

SOCITM

TOMORROW’S PUBLIC SERVICES TODAY Socitm 2010 is dedicated to helping IT professionals maintain service delivery in a time of austerity through informative seminars, best practice and networking THE SOCITM CONFERENCE held each autumn is the Society’s premier national event, drawing delegates from all over the UK as well as internationally from Socitm sister organisations in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, Belgium and Denmark.

This year, as the policies of the coalition government start to kick in, and the talk of severe public sector cuts gets real as October’s Spending Review approaches, the business rationale for attending this event has never been clearer. This year the event takes place at the Brighton Hilton Metropole 10-12 October.

BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION According to Socitm president Jos Creese, radical business transformation is the only answer for public sector organisations determined to maintain service delivery in this new era of austerity. IT leaders and their teams must, therefore, step up and persuade top decisionmakers in local public services to commit fully to people and cost-saving through IT facilitated models of delivery – many of which imply a whole new culture and way of doing things.

The old model, in which IT and IT managers operated as a support service to the business just won’t cut the mustard in the years ahead.

Socitm 2010 is dedicated to helping IT professionals meet this challenge head on, providing top speakers, a wide choice of topics, and the presence of their peers for sharing ideas, debating key issues, and taking away new and emerging practice from the best organisations in public and private sectors.

KEY TOPICS The conference programme will bring delegates bang up to date on key unfolding agendas: open data and transparency; G-cloud and PSN; smart commissioning; customer access, management and channel shift; Goverrnent ICT strategy; shared services, personal data and e-engagement, and the ‘Big Society’.

Opening proceedings will be Lord Blair of Boughton, the former commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, who retired from policing in 2008 and is now one of the UK’s most informed commentators on leadership and change management. During his time at the Met, Lord Blair was instrumental in the transformation of the workforce through a large expansion of community policing and significantly increasing minority recruitment.

His presentation, ‘Leadership and Followship’ will include advice on motivating staff and delivery partners in times of financial pressure,

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service reduction, change and crisis. It will look at joint accountablility for performance where public sector bodies work in partnership (think place based budgeting), and the role of technology in delivering increased efficiency and better service outcomes.

LEADING THE REVOLUTION With so much uncertainly ahead for local public services, delegates will be keen to hear from those already leading change in the sector. Rob Whiteman is fairly new to the helm of Local Government Improvement and Development (formerly the IDeA) but immediately before that

government from direction and regulation, Socitm delegates will be keen to see how this world view translates into the government’s ICT strategy. Will there be less prescription and more emphasis on standards; an approach long advocated by Socitm? The presentation from Bill McCluggage, the deputy government CIO who has overall responsibility for the formulation, development and communication of cross-government ICT strategies and policies, will be eagerly awaited. Among other things, he leads on the government’s ICT Procurement Strategy, including plans to improve procurement and supplier management, an

According to Socitm president Jos Creese, radical business transformation is the only answer for public sector organisations determined to maintain service delivery in this new era of austerity he spent five years as chief executive of LB of Barking and Dagenham, during which time the Council made swift improvement. Named by Local Government Chronicle as one of the ten most influential people in local government, Rob has also worked extensively in Whitehall and is well tuned into the coalition government’s agenda.

The next decade, he told a recent audience, is about transparency, social media, using new technology much more. Local government wants to be ahead of the curve on this because there is a revolution happening and they want to be a part of that. Delegates may expect him to expand on these themes at Socitm 2010.

Another view from the top on what might be involved in leading a local authority through this revolution will be revealed by John Barradell OBE, who has been chief executive of conference host city Brighton & Hove since October 2009. In his previous role, as deputy chief executive at Westminster City Council, John led a major organisational change programme which cut bureaucracy and focused on frontline services. He should feel at home addressing a conference of IT professionals: John spent 22 years in the private sector in marketing management roles in IT companies before joining the public sector, with spells in Unisys and Hewlett Packard, as well as some small-medium sized organisations.

With the coalition government and, in particular, Communities Department chief Eric Pickles determined to free up local

area which Socitm president Jos Creese has been outspoken on the need for change.

CUSTOMER ACCESS AND MANAGEMENT Customer access and management features large in the conference programme – something that may seem strange for an ICT conference. However, with awareness rising that efficiencies in customer management are a huge potential source of savings, and that these are enabled by technologies around web self-service, CRM, and information management, ICT professionals are becoming more and more involved in advising their organisations on business solutions for this area.

The benefits of understanding customer circumstances and behaviour, and developing systems and approaches that work with, rather than against these, will be explained by Jane Frost, director of the Individuals Customer Unit at HMRC. Jane is responsible for transforming HMRC’s approach to its 40 million taxpayers and credits recipients. Her new team, which includes HMRC’s Customer Insight and Complaints Units has already paid for itself through efficiencies generated as a result of their work. There are many lessons for local authorities, particularly around handling customers with complex issues.

Tameside Council has been in the vanguard of customer-focused services in the public sector, and has regularly updated and refreshed its approach to transforming customer services using web, phone and face-to-face channels.

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Tim Rainey, Tameside’s deputy chief executive, will explain the importance of customer insight, segmentation and customer journey mapping for service transformations that deliver significant efficiencies for the council and much improved outcomes for customers. Tameside’s transformation of the application process for free school meals is an excellent case in point. A paper application used to cost £58 to authenticate whereas an online self-service transaction now costs six pence, a telephone application £1.12 and a face-to-face meeting about £11. Success in driving take-up of the online service is maximising potential savings.

Getting more people online is a one of the key goals for Martha Lane Fox, the UK digital champion, who is advising government how to provide better, more efficient online public services and how to accelerate efforts to help more people benefit from the internet. The lastminute.com founder recently called on local authorities to encourage their residents to use the internet. She says that around ten million adults in Britain have never used the internet, and that the average family misses out on £560 of savings a year by being offline. The disadvantages of being offline are becoming so great and growing at such a pace, that for reasons of social justice and economic necessity action is needed to encourage and support everyone in the UK to get online.

INTERACTIVE SESSIONS Issues raised by the conference plenary speakers will be developed and expanded upon in the more interactive parallel sessions that feature in Monday’s programme. Delegates will be able to attend three of these sessions, choosing from the following topics: • Open & linked data • Personal data: getting customers to help • Socitm and professionalism • PSN/G-cloud/Government Connect: the local public service perspective • Customer access and channel shift • Shared services: some different models and approaches • Commissioning the third sector • Total place/locally based budgets • Managed services • Embracing ‘Big Society’ with local engagement • Delivery management Enlivening the conference gala dinner will be two mavericks from the right and left of British politics: David Davies MP and Ken Livingstone.

David Davies, a former Chairman of the Conservative Party, Shadow Home Secretary and candidate in the 2005 Conservative leadership contest, famously resigned his seat at Westminster over the erosion of civil liberties in the 2008 Counter-Terrorism Bill. Ken Livingstone, former Leader of the GLC and MP was expelled as a Labour Party member, and resigned his Westminster seat to become Mayor of London. He was defeated by Boris Johnson in the May 2008 mayoral election, but will contest it again in 2012.

Both men have humble beginnings in London. David’s mother brought him up in Wandsworth, and his grandfather was a member of the Communist party. Ken is the son of ‘working class Tories’ in Lambeth.

With so much in common, yet such different political views, Gala Dinner guests can expect a lively and impassioned debate. These two colourful characters take a detached and critical view of their former colleagues, and will discuss the current political scene. They will take questions on anything from the coalition government to Boris and bikes!

The conference will be supported by a large (90 stands) exhibition of software, systems, networks and other suppliers to the sector. The event also features presentation of the IT Excellence Awards, run in association with Intellect UK, and presentation of the Graham Williamson Travel Award.

Socitm is very grateful for the support of event sponsors ICS, MLL Telecom, Dell, Oracle, and Avanquest ProcessFlows.

Public sector networks with no missing pieces Because MLL Telecom specialises in purpose-built public sector networks, you can be sure that your shared network will connect everyone in your community that you need it to. That’s why public sector organisations across the UK trust MLL Telecom to build them private, secure, reliable networks.

To find out how we can provide high speed broadband over copper to your schools and offices visit us at Socitm 2010 -!Stand 78/79. !

For a FREE copy of the Socitm/MLL white paper on Network Sharing for the Public Sector, visit: www.mlltelecom.com/expert/network-sharing

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: www.socitm2010.net

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

SOFTWARE LICENSING

STRATEGY FOR COMPLIANCE Phil Heap, head of Consultancy at FAST Ltd, explains the importance of software asset management within government and how the public sector can take steps to regain control of their software assets BOTH THE PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTOR require a robust approach to cost control as well as a firm handle on their risk exposure and overall compliance situation in order to deliver predictability and reassurance in an uncertain world. One of the main areas that organisations need to ensure is under control, and ensure quickly, is their IT estate.

It is difficult to find a central government department or a local council whose business operations and communications do not depend on technology. So the smooth running of IT is critically important to the ongoing success of an organisation. However, in an ever-changing world, maintaining control is not as easy as it might sound.

Public sector organisations have an obligation to ensure that their software is properly licensed, and that the IT environment is managed effectively. Especially with the recent government budget cuts, which have affected the majority of the public sector departments, this means wasting nothing, allocating scarce funds with due care and attention, and ruthlessly tracking budget spend. This includes money spent on software licences, particularly in respect of virtualisation, where vendors’ licensing strategies can be hard to handle and understand.

WHY SAM IS SO IMPORTANT In order to take control of costs, organisations need to take a hard look at doing the essentials such as software asset management (SAM) in a more efficient way. Effective SAM can save huge amounts of money, both in the short and longer term, for government and public sector organisations, as it can highlight where there are overspends on software licences.

However, despite the public sector’s obligation to be frugal with budgets, organisations still have a propensity to overspend on software licences. When FAST Ltd has undertaken a gap analysis on local government organisations, it has found huge areas of overspend because of a lack of even the basic principles of management of software. Some organisations simply do not understand what assets they have, where they are and who is using them.

This is important for software compliance because organisations have an obligation to ensure that it is not using licences incorrectly, either through naiveté or through a deliberate desire not to do anything about it.

The overall message to public sector organisations is that efficient management of hardware and software assets, including

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In order to take control of costs, organisations need to take a hard look at doing the essentials such as software asset management (SAM) in a more efficient way. Effective SAM can save huge amounts of money, both in the short and longer term, for government and public sector organisations, as it can highlight where there are overspends on software licences

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SOFTWARE LICENSING

software licences, will not only create a benchmark for efficiency and governance within the organisation, it will also prevent organisations from getting caught short when a vendor decides to do a software audit.

SAM involves managing and optimising the procurement, deployment, maintenance, utilisation, and disposal of software within an organisation. Fundamentally intended to be part of an organisation’s information technology business strategy, the goals of SAM are to reduce information technology costs and limit operational, financial and legal risk within the business related to the ownership and use of software.

SAM – SOME CASES IN POINT The business needs for SAM are welldocumented, and cover compliance, legislation, regulation and contractual obligation, good corporate governance for

software assets, vulnerability and patch management, incident management and risk management – all essential disciplines of any good best practice framework.

The business benefits include giving the organisation a better negotiating position, improved and strategic infrastructure planning, prevention of the over-deployment of software, reduced hardware costs, improved software purchasing agreements, reduced costs of internal support for licensing, reduction in process and direct infrastructure costs, and a reduction in problem resolution costs. In addition, having good sound SAM processes in place tends to mean an improvement in the time to market in delivering products and services. Given the current state of both the economy and government finances, any improved time to market in the provision of services will be more than welcome.

FAST Ltd’s Professional Services team offer

expert professional, consultancy and managed services which can assist organisations that have a lack of resource or in-house skills to execute software asset management plans.

FAST Ltd works with organisations that want to benefit from smarter software and hardware management. Our MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) accredited SAM team ensure that organisations have a legally compliant IT infrastructure that protects their business, minimises risk around compliance, optimises their use of IT assets, and reduces costs.

Take a look at West Sussex County Council which has used our services to help them take control of their SAM and licence estate.

“One of the main benefits of embarking on the FAST Programme is cost avoidance, which right now is probably a key driver for many organisations. Getting a better handle on asset management and, in particular, licence management will be a great help in cutting costs now and in the future,” says Roland Mezulis, the Council’s IT Policy and Planning manager.

REMAINING COMPLIANT Pat Lodwick, Procurement and Operations Support Team leader at Essex Shared Services Agency (ESSA) stated: “It was quite a steep learning curve, getting to grips with software licensing. But it was an imperative for the organisation that we became and remain compliant. After all, we are responsible for the use of thousands of PCs in different NHS trusts in the Essex region. And although we always had that driver to ensure we were legal in our adoption of software within the organisation, the challenge was actually being able to do it.”

In today’s challenging market and uncertain times, both public and private sector organisations are looking for certainty and cost control. FAST Compliance Manager, a tool introduced in 2009 as a benefit of the FAST compliance programme exclusively for FAST Ltd customers, can help companies ascertain their software compliance position to ensure firstly, that there is no overspend on software licensing and secondly, that the risk of licensing shortfalls is mitigated, preventing any budgetary shocks. That’s good for companies, reputations and careers.

So, I put the question to you. Are you in control of your software assets?

FOR MORE INFORMATION To find out more about what you should do if you receive a letter from a vendor, download a copy of our new FAST SOS Survival Guide to Software Audits from the FAST Ltd website (www.fast-compliance.co.uk/sos).

The Guide is a step by step document which explains what you should do to protect your organisation – and suggests ways of avoiding future audits.

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

SOFTWARE LICENSING

MANAGE YOUR IT ESTATE WITH CONFIDENCE After a four year sabbatical, the FAST Ltd Annual Conference returns on 3 November to focus on key IT issues facing businesses throughout 2010 and beyond THE THEME FOR THE FAST LTD ANNUAL CONFERENCE on 3 November is The Complexity of Change and delegates will be able to select sessions from two themes across the day – The Future of IT and Software Asset Management & Best Practice.

Lord Rupert Redesdale will deliver the Keynote Speech on Green IT and will be followed by a number of high calibre speakers discussing other topical issues such as Virtualisation, Cloud Computing, SaaS, Counterfeit Software, Software Asset Management, ITIL, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Cybersecurity.

Lord Redesdale first entered House of Lords in 1991. He was the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson in the Lords for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Agriculture and Energy) until 2008 and vice Chair of the All Party Climate Change Group. He is also on the board of Digital Surface Research’s product SolaVeil, a ground-breaking digital surface technology that enables companies to significantly reduce building energy use.

He has been actively involved in all issues around climate change and he recently became Chair of Cranberry, a company specialising in the production of the most environmentally-friendly PC in the world.

Matt Barnes, managing director at FAST Ltd described Lord Redesdale’s participation as the Keynote Speaker as a coup for the event: “In Software Asset Management and compliance, we are navigating through a world fraught with continuous change and ever-increasing complexity. It is very much a similar story in the world of climate change, and we are delighted that Lord Redesdale has accepted our invitation to be a Keynote Speaker at the FAST Annual Conference.”

SPEAKERS & EXHIBITION The conference will also include presentations from Ian Osborne, director of Digital Systems Knowledge Transfer Network, Intellect; Dominic Storey, technical director EMEA, Sourcefire; Peter Rowell, chairman, Regent Partners International; Andy Lawrence, research director, The 451 Group; Ian Moyse, Channel director EMEA, Webroot; Andy White, managing director EMEA & APAC, Numara Software; and Peter Hubbard, senior ITSM consultant from Pink Elephant.

There will also be an exhibition area in addition to the conference programme. Here companies will showcase their products with demonstrations and industry experts on hand to advise and inform participants about the

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There will also be an exhibition area in addition to the conference programme. Here companies will showcase their products with demonstrations and industry experts on hand to advise and inform participants about the trends and latest offerings in the marketplace

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SOFTWARE LICENSING

trends and latest offerings in the marketplace.

Confirmed sponsors and exhibitors for the day include Express Metrix, Trustmarque Solutions, Licence Dashboard, LANDesk, Matrix42, IRIS Software, and C8 Consulting.

Matt Barnes is delighted with the quick uptake so far: “We’re thrilled with the response we’ve had from the industry. It’s encouraging to see such high calibre organisations wanting to be involved with FAST Ltd.” WELL ATTENDED EVENT The FAST Ltd Conference will cater for up to 200 delegates from organisations of varying sizes, from 30 to 30,000 IT devices. Delegates booked so far include directors, IT managers, IT Service delivery personnel, project managers, procurement

personnel, consultants and analysts.

Grant Brierley, VP Sales & Marketing, EMEA for Express Metrix, official bag sponsor of the event stated: “Express Metrix is proud to sponsor the FAST Ltd annual conference again this November. FAST Ltd is a benchmark for IT compliance and SAM best practice advice and training and the conference is always a very lively and well attended event. Sponsoring the event has always given Express Metrix the chance to meet many key decision makers from a broad spectrum of business and public sectors.”

Sponsorship opportunities are still available, starting from £450 and exhibitor spaces are also available from only £2,995. Please contact Karen Smith on 01628 760354 for more information.

is £399 + VAT but a special discount of £50 per person is available to Government Technology readers who quote “GT50” when booking.

FAST Ltd is a leading independent UK authority on Software Asset Management and IT Compliance, and over the years has helped 8,000 organisations control their IT costs, mitigate risk and deploy best practice IT using expert, impartial and independent advice.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit www.fast-compliance.co.uk/ conference_info for more information and to reserve your place.

MERCEDES BENZ WORLD DELEGATE TOUR The conference is being held at the prestigious Mercedes-Benz World in Weybridge, Surrey, offering an exclusive delegates’ tour to see classic cars past, present and future plus a chance to win a one hour driving experience in a 6.2 litre V8 AMG performance car.

The standard delegate rate for the conference TIME

ACTIVITY

8.30 – 9.30

Registration and refreshments served in exhibition area

9.30 – 9.50

Opening address in main room – Matt Barnes, managing director, FAST

9.50 – 10.35

Keynote Speaker – Lord Rupert Redesdale, House of Lord, Climate Change Committee representative

10.35 – 11.05

Morning break and opportunity to visit exhibition Stream A – New Decade, New Horizons, Ian Osborne, Intellect

11.05 – 11.40

Stream B – Mergers & Acquisitions: Ownership & Outsourcing – Peter Rowell, Regents Partners International Stream A – Assessing and Evaluating the Risks of Cloud Computing – Ian Moyse, Webroot

11.45 – 12.20 Stream B – Is It All Joined Up Yet? IT Management integration issues – Andy White, Numara Software 12.20 – 1.20

Lunch and opportunity to visit exhibition

1.20 – 1.55

Stream A – CyberSecurity & Threat Protection in a Constantly Changing World Dominic Storey, Sourcefire Stream B – ITIL/SAM/BEST Practice – Peter Hubbard, Pink Elephant Stream A – Green IT – Andy Lawrence, the 451 Group

2.00 – 2.35 Stream B – Software Asset Management & Best Practice – TBC

Atrium interior at Mercedes Benz World

2.35 – 3.05

Afternoon break and opportunity to visit exhibition

3.05 – 3.50

Keynote Speaker: TBC

3.50 – 4.10

Closing address in main room – Matt Barnes, managing director, FAST

4.15 – 4.45

Mercedes Benz World Delegate Tour

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REDUCING THE PUBLIC SPENDING DEFICIT Ever got out of the “wrong side of the bed”? Dale Jones of NSR Management explores how training can maximise the value of your tenders 24TH JUNE 2010 was going to be a very memorable day for Tony. A jolt, in what seemed like the middle of the night, proved to be yet another early rude awakening at 6.45am – an annoying 15 minutes before his retro digital radio alarm was due to go off. 15 minutes is that awkward but special amount of time that simply means getting straight up is out of the question, but the act itself must be dictated by Drill Sergeant Alarm. A Sergeant who has somewhat questionable authority as the drill is usually followed by a tirade of AWOL “snoozing”.

This morning, however, the shriek of the Drill Sergeant’s cry certainly brought Tony to attention as today was D-Day, he needed to be on form.

On form was certainly not the phrase of the day as Tony shot out of bed only to be thwarted by a stray shoe and a conveniently placed bedside table. Not one to be perturbed he brushed himself off and began his morning routine in preparation for his big day.

Without boring you with the details of which trouser leg Tony opted for first, the rest of his morning routine contained a few mishaps but nothing to write home about, however, something certainly wasn’t right. Finally, Tony made it to work at the council in one piece and on time.

Today he was part of ‘An Audience With...

The Council’, to listen to an important briefing.

Unfortunately, “public spending cut backs” had become a term everyone had been accustomed to, and although masters of the English language Tony and his fellow colleagues translated “important briefing” into “job losses announcement”.

However, the future was in their hands.

A letter from No. 10 duly signed by Mr. Cameron and Mr. Osborne had hit everyone’s desk. The government needs ideas from those public sector workers on the front line on how to reduce wastage and improve efficiency, and who better to ask? Tony was the estates and facilities manager for the council and the ideas just flooded in.

He had recently attended a training course on best practice in administrating a Measured Term Contract (MTC) using the National Schedule of Rates (a pricing mechanism whereby building maintenance rates are nationally benchmarked making the council more accountable for their maintenance expenditure due to less pricing queries on invoices and not having to pay for “rogue” items.) It is a robust system that could save the council thousands compared to their current policy of choosing the cheapest of three quotations. Tony also thought to himself, imagine the efficiency benefits a MTC could give to the long term relationship between the contractor and the council.

Mr. Cameron and Mr. Osborne, you have got to hear about this! Not only will it save

A brighter future...Dale Jones, QS for NSR Management, looks into reducing the public spending deficit using the National Schedule of Rates

Tony’s small council tens of thousands of pounds a year but imagine the savings for the country as a whole if this practice was applied to every public sector organisation.

Tony left work an empowered and happy man. Today he was single handedly going to save the country. So much for getting out of the wrong side of the bed!

NOW FOR THE SCIENCE BIT The National Schedule of Rates allows you to issue a series of works orders, showing the breakdown of materials, plant and labour, confident that the charges are based on predetermined and agreed basis of measurement and pricing. We research and update our schedules regularly and price over 16,000 items. Each rate is individually researched and updated annually and broken down into its elements of material, plant and labour. The key to using the National Schedule of Rates is in the tendering process.

All contractors will be asked to price in accordance with the National Schedule of Rates by applying a percentage adjustment to allow for overheads and profit, items that aren’t contained within the rates. This percentage adjustment can be a negative or a positive figure. The client who then places future orders to the winning tenderer/s will know exactly how much each maintenance job will cost, on the basis that each job is broken down into the elements of labour, plant and materials, maximising accountability and maximising time savings.

Indeed this tendering and price mechanism system from the National Schedule of Rates optimises all areas of time, quality and cost equally. Awareness and Training Maintenance and Measured Term Contracts are an area often neglected by cost consultancies and therefore being aware of all aspects involved in maintenance and MTCs is important

to both the client and the contractor.

The training provided by NSR Management shows the client and the contractor how to maximise the value of their Measured Term Contract, with an explanation of best practice in using the schedules as well as best practice in tendering and administering a Measured Term Contract. For more information please contact NSR Management’s quantity surveyor, Dale Jones on 01296 339966 or e-mail dale@nsrmanagement.co.uk.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE As an alternative or in addition to using hard copies of the National Schedule of Rates, clients and contractors often find our computer software version of the schedules easier to use especially for non-technical staff. eNeStimator is the well established software package from NSR Management for managing term contracts using the National Schedules of Rates Creates orders and invoices using the National Schedules and the National Housing Maintenance Schedule, together with unitary and composite and schedules created by users in NSR format, where these exist. Includes desktops for creating estimates of cost, orders and invoices. Incorporates comprehensive item search and find facility. Rates adjusted for the Tendered Percentage Adjustment and large order discounts, where required by the contract.

Facilities for despatching orders and invoices in print format, saving to disk and transmission by e-mail. This software comes in either a CD version or web based version for more flexibility.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01296 339966 Fax: 01296 338514 E-mail: nsr@nsrmanagement.co.uk Web: www.nsrm.co.uk

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

www.governmenttechnology.co.uk

SOFTWARE LICENSING

IT INVENTORY MANAGEMENT Accurate IT inventory is the key to maintaining services with reducing budgets, says iQuate WITH PUBLIC SECTOR IT BUDGETS subject to unprecedented scrutiny, it is critical that all organisations can answer the two fundamental questions key to ensuring optimised IT budgets – “Are we paying for what we use?” and “Are we using what we paid for?”.

Having an accurate picture of what assets are deployed in your network is required for operational control and compliance.

Benefits stretch beyond cost control.

Public service organisations are at the forefront of IT management and compliance initiatives, and do their utmost to ensure that licences purchased match software deployed. However, in most cases this is easier said than done, for several reasons:

and significant impact on cost, so it is imperative that they are accurately accounted for.

Virtualisation and partitioning further complicate the scene, with some vendors (such as Oracle) requiring that licences be purchased (under certain circumstances) for the underlying physical hardware rather than the virtualised server’s configuration.

SOFTWARE IS EASY Most enterprise level software does not require licence keys to deploy (e.g. software from Oracle and IBM, among others). This means there is no mechanism in place to prevent uncontrolled installation. There is also a lack of connection between software deployed and contracts in place/licences purchased.

Many software companies openly encourage developers to use any/all of their software free of charge for development purposes. Once it proves its worth and is deployed in a production system, it is then required that the customer will purchase licences for the software. However, developers and project managers sometimes overlook these costs and fail to consider the knock-on effects of deploying options and software for which a licence does not exist.

There is so much free software available for legitimate download, that developers and sophisticated users do not think twice about searching for and downloading software to complete a task. If a developer needs some software, they just go looking for it.

Obviously when software is found on the corporate network, then it is even easier to mistakenly assume it has been paid for.

For enterprise software, the possible permutations of versions, editions and options are almost limitless, so the vendors tend to distribute standard installation disks that may contain entire catalogues of software and not just the ones you have paid for. It is therefore very common that software which has not been licensed gets deployed on the network.

While most organisations are focused on ensuring that they are properly licensed for what they are using, many overspend or fail to get full value from the budget they have spent by ensuring that they are actually using the software licences they have paid for to the full

HARDWARE IS COMPLEX Advances such as multi-core processors, partitioning and virtualisation deliver many cost and performance advantages to large networks.

Unfortunately they also provide additional layers of complexity to the already muddled world of software licensing. The type and number of processors used in a server can have a direct

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organisation-wide licensing all with different terms and conditions. Whether it is an ELA, ULA, site licence, unlimited user licence or any other name, it will be restricted to a certain set of products.

Over time, vendors will often use these agreements as a springboard for sales of additional/replacement products during the lifetime of an agreement. As a result, the organisation may purchase and implement replacement software – without cancelling the original multi-year agreement. Many public sector organisations are still paying for software that has been replaced.

Most enterprise-level software attracts an

IS IT STILL IN USE? While most organisations are focused on ensuring that they are properly licensed for what they are using, many overspend or fail to get full value from the budget they have spent by ensuring that they are actually using the

software licences they have paid for to the full.

In order to avoid the risk of licence audits, unexpected bills and falling foul of legal and regulatory compliance regimes, many IT managers over estimate their software requirement. This over estimation may be intentional, as a form of caution or precaution in the expectation of a vendor audit, or it may be unintentional – the result of a ball-park figure being used.

annual support cost. For every year that the software is licensed, a support fee (typically a percentage of the original cost) is due. If you do not know that the software is no longer required/in use, then you cannot cancel the licences. If you do not cancel the licences then you will still be paying support – for software you are no longer using.

HOW IQUATE CAN HELP iQuate focuses on delivering the facts.

Without accurate information it is impossible to make the right licensing decisions, so iQuate provides the accurate data needed, when it’s needed. iQuate software delivers accuracy across multiple hardware and software technology platforms. iQSonar is the flagship product and it is an agentless, scalable, automated discovery tool, designed

LONG TERM GOOD VALUE? In recent years, multi-year licence deals have become common; these have compounded the inclination to build in redundancy to cater for expected future requirements.

This caution and reliance on rough estimates lead to significant overspend.

Vendors have different names for

ACCURATE IT INVENTORY SAVES MONEY A high profile UK Government Agency delivering public-facing services outsourced its IT operations to a large Systems Integrator (SI). In order to ensure they were compliant, the SI deployed a team of Oracle experts to perform a manual Oracle inventory count. iQuate were engaged to verify the result of this audit using iQSonar. The tool was initially deployed in a test environment to satisfy the client that running the tool would have no detrimental impact

on the performance or availability of key business critical applications.

Once deployed across the entire network, iQSonar discovered that the manual audit was incorrect.

This discrepancy was caused by the SI having miscounted processors and cores and preparing a list of Oracle options installed, rather than options in use.

Had the SI provided the original report to Oracle, the Agency would have overpurchased licences to the tune of £1.1m.

Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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SOFTWARE LICENSING

IQUATE – MAKING THE COMPLEX EASY Oracle’s License Management Services (LMS) were recently engaged with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) who obviously have unique security and operational requirements.

Owing to the complexity and the size of the network (over 10,000 network devices) – previous (manual and automated, agent based) attempts to identify their complete Oracle deployment had limited success. As time passed, the risk of non-compliance and of inefficient utilisation of purchased licenses increased.

These issues had also delayed the

to provide up-to-date inventory information. iQSonar works across multiple technologies, and provides comprehensive functionality to support Oracle. In July 2010, iQSonar became the first tool in the world to be verified by Oracle’s Licence Management Services department. iQSonar is available in two versions. iQSonar: Enterprise Edition provides accurate inventory across your entire network. iQSonar: Oracle Edition extends iQSonar Enterprise Edition to provide the most accurate Oracle deployment and usage data available today.

Without an effective source of accurate IT inventory data readily available, requests from vendors for an audit are disruptive, time consuming and potentially very expensive. iQSonar helps minimise the stress and risk associated with

submission of complete audit data to Oracle by several months. iQuate completed the audit in days without any network, performance or security issues. The PSNI then had an accurate view of their Oracle usage and was able to report their position to Oracle.

The IT department in the organisation were extremely pleased with the results, the IS/IT Operations Manager said: “The PSNI have been an Oracle customer for over 15 years, and this is the first time we’ve ever had full clarity on what we have deployed with regards to Oracle.”

such audits by automating what is otherwise a labour intensive, error-prone, onerous task. “iQSonar is formidable. We’ve achieved more in five weeks with iQuate that in 18 months with our traditional asset management software,” said one customer.

FAST TO DELIVER RESULTS iQSonar is designed for use on large, sophisticated networks comprising multiple platforms, sites and locations and is suitable for networks of over 5,000 devices. It is regularly used on networks with over 100,000 devices. iQSonar is fast to deploy and quick to deliver meaningful data. As an agentless tool iQSonar has several advantages over other, agent based tools. Being agentless means that no software is installed on the remote, scanned

devices. iQSonar is deployed centrally, often on a single server and can start producing real results in just a few hours. iQSonar is capable of scanning thousands of devices an hour and scales to handle the largest networks.

FLEXIBLE & ACCURATE iQSonar is extremely flexible. With iQSonar you have total control over what information is gathered, what machines are scanned and even how quickly the scanning can take place.

If you have additional specific questions, you can instruct iQSonar to gather the answers.

Simple tools or scripts that claim to provide IT inventory data typically need to be told what machines to scan in the first place. One of the biggest reasons for incomplete inventory is in failure to point inventory tools at all of the machines where software is installed. With its multiplatform and multi-protocol capabilities, iQSonar does not need to be given lists of machines to audit. iQSonar discovers devices on the network, and ensures a complete inventory is possible.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 0845 3581358 E-mail: info@iquate.com Web: www.iquate.com

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

SOFTWARE LICENSING

ACHIEVING LEAN IT Cost cutting strategies for your software assets from Phoenix Software PHOENIX SOFTWARE HAS BEEN working with the UK public sector for almost 20 years and knows how to help you achieve lean IT. The public sector is being challenged to reduce its operating costs as part of the national response to the current economic problems facing the UK. In this climate, we can expect a significant reduction in ICT spend across the public sector and a greater emphasis on extracting maximum value from previous investment – i.e. to increasingly sweat assets and maximise IT resources.

At Phoenix Software, we clearly recognise that our service offerings now need to address the issues and challenges facing public sector organisations as they seek to operate within reduced ICT budgets. We are authors of Licence Dashboard™ – a powerful software tool which enables public sector organisations and their departments to take control of their software assets.

Using Licence Dashboard, we can offer public sector organisations best-value Software Asset Management (SAM) programmes to help them manage their software licence compliance, while at the same time achieving lean IT. WHAT IS LEAN IT? Lean IT is all about maximising IT resources while minimising waste. A lean organisation is able to maintain and deliver high levels of service without losing control of its financial and legal responsibilities. With IT budgets being slashed, there has never been a better time for the public sector to take control and manage their IT resources effectively.

The Treasury and the Cabinet Office has created an Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG) to enforce savings across government.

With ERG currently reviewing all government expenditure over £1m and looking at which projects and products are no longer essential for purchase, we know what the fallout can mean – the termination of contracts such as the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement for the NHS is a good example.

The NHS employs over one million staff and is possibly the largest user of Microsoft technology in the world. It has recently decided to end its Microsoft Enterprise Agreement - so what does it mean from a SAM perspective if other public sector departments also do not renew their Enterprise Agreements with Microsoft and other vendors?

If we consider firstly the terminated NHS agreement – this allowed NHS staff full access to the Microsoft Office suite of applications and a copy for home use for a nominal fee. What challenges now face the NHS outside of the Enterprise Agreement and what advice would Phoenix Software offer them as they move forward?

At a national level, the NHS Agreement used

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to allow them access on a perpetual basis to all the latest versions of Microsoft technology within the confines of the Agreement terms.

The NHS could consume as much as they liked with some applications, with no regard to actual usage. As they exit the agreement, Microsoft is going to be interested in their asset base and the controls in place. They face the cultural and practical shift from an annual true-up ticking the box exercise to a

more rigorous and stricter review process and investigation around installs, version controls, purchasing and regular compliance checks.

In the current climate, where software vendors are concerned, there is now a strong appetite for audits and it is probably true to say there will be a high incidence of audits across the NHS trusts from Microsoft and other vendors such as Novell. These, and many other vendors, will have now lost

In approaching Phoenix Software for Software Audit and Asset Management services, the council’s main objective was not only to demonstrate software copyright compliance but, more importantly, to implement a business process that would promote effective management, reduce operational costs and increase return on investment – North Lincolnshire Council

Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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SOFTWARE LICENSING

significant contracts, so as the government makes further cuts into IT budgets, vendors will want to ensure costs are recouped and intellectual property is not being exploited.

Public sector organisations in general, and NHS organisations in particular, should now take the opportunity to baseline their IT infrastructure, with a view to optimising IT assets for the future. This will assist them in planning their technology requirements and understanding their current position with regard to software needs. Once this baseline is established, they need to ensure that they are only paying for the licences that they are going to use.

Those who will now be responsible for obtaining and maintaining software licences for all systems, applications and servers deployed in their environment must ask themselves a series of questions: • Do I know how many licences we actually need?

• Can we effectively plan for future technology upgrades?

• Can we save money by optimising our investment in hardware and software assets?

• How will we manage software upgrades in the future?

First things first, it is important that you identify which assets are spiralling out of

control and which assets attribute the most on-going support costs. From our experience, this evaluation usually leads to one conclusion – software. With software taking up an ever increasing share of an organisation’s IT budget, it has become even more important to manage, control and protect your software assets.

Having a greater understanding of your licence position and being able to track what software you have deployed can definitely help you avoid unnecessary expenditure. Implementing an effective Software Asset Management programme can, therefore, reduce costs without necessarily reducing the number of desktop devices and servers required – thereby minimising the impact on value services.

LICENCE DASHBOARD™ The basis of any good SAM programme is to keep accurate and up-to-date software licence information – together with processes for controlling and maintaining its accuracy. Having a comprehensive licence management tool to store this information is essential. Not only does this allow you to archive effectively but it also allows you to publish this information when required and clearly balance the equation between what you have installed and what you are allowed to install.

With Licence Dashboard, used in conjunction with a SAM programme, you can effectively and automatically control the entire lifecycle of your software assets from purchase, to upgrade and beyond. With its easy-to-use interface, users such as SAM managers, licence administrators, IT managers and all other authorised members of staff can gain access to software inventory, licence inventory and purchasing information at anytime.

Using this information can ensure that all purchases of software are correctly specified and procured using the most cost-effective agreements, while ensuring that all licence evidence is correctly recorded and loss of entitlement is significantly reduced. By continuing to aggregate your organisation’s installation rights, more informed purchasing decisions can be made – thus reducing the risks of overspend.

It is worth noting that Gartner informs us that organisations that do not utilise this information during the purchasing stage overbuy software licences for 60 per cent of their portfolio.

From a single view within Licence Dashboard, an administrator can report exactly what your organisation is allowed to install, determine how many licences have been allocated, verify how many licences are still available and be alerted to any maintenance renewals that are due. This unique report enables you to manage day-to-day licensing chores without the user having to be a licence specialist. It also provides greater clarity – putting you in a better negotiating position and promoting more informed purchasing decisions.

Utilising Licence Dashboard helps reduce operational costs by streamlining and

controlling the software lifecycle. It also increases valuable IT resource availability and productivity. After establishing your licence entitlement, Licence Dashboard then goes on to determine your compliance position. To do this, the application directly interfaces into your existing IT asset inventory or discovery tool and cleanses the software usage.

Asset inventory tools are generally designed and implemented to assist in managing an organisation’s technical attributes and not licence compliance per se. Most of these asset inventory tools are excellent at scanning the network for hardware and software information – manipulating this software information into a format that enables you to identify your licensable products, however, can become a nightmare.

Licence Dashboard’s comprehensive functionality takes the complexity out of licensing and really allows you to manage fully the software and licence entitlement lifecycle – thereby reducing operational risk and excessive spend.

TAKING THE STEP So, with cost reduction the order of the day, there has never been a better time to embark on that SAM programme you have been putting off for years and start realising the true benefits associated with effective management of your software assets.

As experienced by all the organisations we have been engaged with, you too could save hundreds of thousands of pounds without necessarily having to reduce your physical assets or workforce. In addition, the indirect savings – such as improved strategic infrastructure planning and reduced support costs – could also be significant and financially beneficial to all areas of your organisation.

FOR MORE INFORMATION We’d like to help you achieve ‘lean IT’ – so, why not join us for a free-of-charge seminar designed specifically to help Public Sector organisations take control of their software assets? Taking place on Friday 26 November 2010 at the offices of Intellect on Russell Square, London – simply reserve your place by registering online at www.phoenixs.co.uk/events For further information on any of the SAM services offered by Phoenix Software, please don’t hesitate to contact a member of our team on 0845 265 1265 or email info@phoenixs.co.uk

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FIND OUT HOW TO CUT COST AND IMPROVE PERFORMANCE itSMF UK Conference, taking place 8-9 November, is the essential event for IT service managers NOW IT ITS 19TH YEAR, the itSMF UK Conference is THE annual event for IT service management professionals, offering education, networking and an annual awards dinner all under one roof. This year, for the first time, the event will take place in London, running at the Novotel London West on 8-9 November.

“We believe the new London location will greatly improve the entire conference experience for sponsors, exhibitors, speakers and delegates alike,” said itSMF UK’s deputy CEO Ben Clacy.

“However, we are also tailoring sponsorship packages, providing greater flexibility to delegates and giving the conference programme a complete makeover with a reduced number of streams and presentations, as well as introducing three further days of ITSM training for those who wish to take full advantage of their time in the capital.”

In total there are over 40 educational sessions in the programme, broken down into five streams – Lessons Learned, People, Continual Service Improvement (CSI), Tips & Techniques, and Back to Basics, as well as a further selection of interactive sessions. In addition, there is an unparalleled exhibition involving more than 50 trainers and vendors.

KEYNOTES The conference will be opened by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, often referred to as the world’s greatest living explorer, who will draw a connection between nature’s most difficult and dangerous challenges and the day-to-day hurdles faced by those in the work environment.

Voted the top motivational speaker out of 700 international speakers, Fiennes will explain how building a team with the right character and attitude is of paramount importance to success, whether in business or at the top of Everest.

The closing session of the conference belongs to Sharon Taylor, former chief architect for ITIL and chair of itSMF International, and current chief examiner for ITIL V3 qualifications. Noted for her forthright style and broad industry knowledge, Sharon will be focusing on the future of IT Service Management in general and ITIL in particular.

Alongside the opening and closing keynote, this year also sees the introduction of an analyst plenary on the Tuesday morning.

Forrester’s principal analyst James Staten will be looking at the cloud computing conundrum.

His session will focus on the balance or difficulty in achieving balance between business agility and process efficiency.

The main aim of the conference programme is to allow speakers to share their practical service management experiences with delegates.

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The Lessons Learned stream, for example, includes a case study by Lara Osgood and Carl Chambers of Virgin Atlantic. Their presentation describes the formation of Virgin’s Service Delivery and Management Programme, launched in a climate of global aviation price and cost cutting, and driven by a desire to improve service by moving to industry best practices underpinned by tools that supported this philosophy. The session offers invaluable input for delegates to add to their own Service Improvement Programmes.

In ‘The right capability in the right place at the right time’ in the People stream of presentations, Daryl Back of Unilever will talk about his company’s methodology for obtaining resource for its IT function.

This has changed from predominantly internal development to also include external recruitment and supply through strategic outsourcing contracts.

Following the people theme, Ben Grinnell of the UK Border Agency describes how UKBA have gone about professionalising their IT department over the last two years. This started with an organisational restructuring and lots of recruitment activity, mainly to reduce the dependency on consultants and contractors, and the creation of a specialised function, based on SFIA and ITIL principles, for those delivering IT programmes and projects.

Guilio Tedeschi and Helen Morris of Belron International go back to basics with a session entitled ‘I can see clearly now – working towards ITSM best practice in a changing environment’. This presentation discusses the challenge of managing the expansion of the organisation, including international mergers, whilst maintaining stable, effective and efficient IT services. With best practice in mind, the speakers describe their first steps

RECOGNITION FOR ACHIEVEMENT As always, the highlight of the itSMF UK Conference is the annual awards dinner, where the greatest achievements in IT Service Management are highlighted and rewarded. As Chairman Barry Corless commented at last year’s event: “Every year I walk away from our awards ceremony thinking we can’t top that next year. I continue to be proved wrong.”

This year there will be awards for ITSM project of the year and service champion,

towards ISO/IEC 20000 accreditation.

In the CSI stream, Dave Howard of Toyota Financial Services introduces Toyota Business Practices (TBP), an eight-step process that clarifies a problem, identifies the root cause, develops counter-measures, monitors and measures the results of the improvements and standardises the successful process. TBP combines the familiar Deming Cycle (Plan, Do, Check and Act) with the principles of the Toyota Way (Continuous Improvement and Respect for People).

Change Management often attracts opposition and cynicism within an organisation, if not properly understood and effectively implemented. In his session ‘Introducing compulsory Change Management in a climate of resistance’, Paul Scott of the Bank of England explains how his team relaunched Change Management, giving more consideration to the people expected to implement the Change Process. This involved a clear directive from the bank’s leadership that IT change would become compulsory, and a concerted communication campaign with clearly defined reasoning behind the objectives and benefits.

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service innovation, best written submission, trainer and students of the year, as well as the much coveted Paul Rappaport Award for Outstanding Contribution to Service Management – the ultimate accolade for those working in ITSM. Introducing the proceedings this year will be comedian and impressionist Jon Culshaw, who will bring his particular brand of humour to the prestigious evening’s events.

the ITIL Cooper Test, a technique from Ben Kalland of Tieturi. Based on ITIL, COBIT and ISO/ IEC 20000, the test allows delegates to assess their own Incident Management process in 12 minutes and determine where improvements are needed. They will get the charts for the Change Management process as well.

WHY ATTEND? These are just a few of the presentations on offer at this year’s itSMF UK Conference.

Along with the exhibition, endless networking opportunities, and training in such popular topics as capacity planning, service level agreements and service catalogues, this is undoubtedly (as one delegate put it last year) “the best value IT Service Management consultancy you can obtain”.

“It’s not easy in the current climate for anyone to spare two days away from the office,” comments Ben Clacy, “but this is an excellent use of your time. The presentations and discussions at itSMF UK Conference offer a unique opportunity to learn how to implement best practice and policies within your organisation; how to improve efficiencies and achieve a greater return on your service management investments.”

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the features required for each scenario, whether just mobile applications for field workers or a complete end-to-end, call centre to field business automation system with integration to third party systems. Solarvista™ is unique in the marketplace in that all products are entirely developed by us and therefore integration between products is designed in.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Solarvista Software Ltd 18 Atlas Way Sheffield S4 7QQ United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)114 2211000 Fax: +44 (0)114 2215000

A software platform that manages your remote workforce LTERNATIVE LOGIC creates software that manages and tracks your remote workforce. Providing data capture in real time, the flexible and scalable platforms effectively streamline your working processes, with considerable time and cost savings.

FieldLogic is a software platform that manages your remote workforce and tracks everything they do. Each member of the team has a handheld device that they use to log their hours, their location, their movements and the jobs completed.

• Real time data capture gives an up-to-the-minute view of your business.

• Online progress reports of job schedules and status.

• Choice of mobile devices, including barcode scanning options, available with a range of mobile networks.

• Accurate time management with users logging start and

A

finish times as well as any other relevant details, such as job completion times.

• Paperless transactions cuts cost, improves efficiency and saves trees.

• Built-in barcode scanners make it easy to keep track of all of your stock.

• Information can be accessed securely from any internet connection via your customised online portal.

• A well-informed customer services department means better communication with customers and increased customer satisfaction.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01244 620407 Fax: 01244 620421 E-mail: info@altlogic.com Web: www.altlogic.com

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and mobile data solutions – streamlining operations, reducing administration and improving community relations.

Whatever your public sector service, whatever your public sector job role, however complex your administration process, wherever you are, Barcode Products Ltd can give you the mobility solution you need.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 08008 560588 E-mail: info@barcode products.co.uk www.barcodeproducts.co.uk

Service excellence with Metrix and 360 ASED IN FAREHAM, Field Service Management Limited (FSM) is a reseller of the market leading Metrix Service Management & Mobile Data Solutions and 360 Scheduling Solutions.

Metrix and 360 are used by leading service organisations throughout the world ensuring they can meet continually evolving service levels and responsibilities.

The software manages the full asset and repairs lifecycle, call centre, ongoing maintenance and support, dynamic scheduling, mobile data for operatives and completion of repairs and associated swap outs, disposal (WEE Directive), part sales, additional services and invoicing.

All of those processes are fully integrated and subject to user defined workflow, ensuring maximum operational efficiency and ultimately higher profitability.

FSM’s products are authored in latest technology ensuring investments are future proofed whilst benefitting from easier integration with third party

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solutions, better user interface for quick adoption of the software and faster, more cost effective implementations.

FSM’s customer base includes commercial and public sector organisations, examples include; AutoTrail, Cubic Transportation Limited, Chesterfield Borough Council, Moorlands Housing, Manpower UK, Redstone Convergent Solutions (formally Comunica PLC), Scobie McIntosh, Space Engineering Services, Tesco Tech Support, Teradyne Diagnostic Solutions, Vernacare.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Contact: Rory Church, sales and marketing director Tel: 01489 611625 E-mail: roryc@fieldservice management.co.uk www.fieldservice management.co.uk

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DATA CENTRES

DRIVING ENERGY AND COST EFFICIENCY Zahl Limbuwala, chair of the BCS’s Data Centre Specialist Group, discusses ways to achieve a leaner, greener data centre ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SINCE MY FRIEND CHRISTIAN BELADY from Microsoft first started talking about data centre efficiency over three years ago, there has been no end of folks jumping onto the efficiency bandwagon. Some are interested in helping define and measure it, others are trying to achieve it and others will sell you products and services to improve it.

Christian himself was one of the first people I heard talking about PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), the now ubiquitous metric that explains how efficient your data centre is.

Well, actually, the problem starts right there!

PUE is a simple ratio of energy (yes, I know the metric is called Power Usage Effectiveness) arrived at by dividing the power drawn, by the power needed to operate the IT infrastructure. So, 200kWh of utility supply energy use divided by 100kWh of IT equipment only energy draw, gives us a PUE of 2.

PUE was a good start and is widely used but it has limited application as its simplicity ignores other important factors that should be taken into account before trying to understand or analyse what it means to have a PUE of 2 and if that’s good, bad or indifferent.

EUROPEAN CODE OF CONDUCT Two years ago, the European Commission decided to target data centres directly as a possible source for carbon emissions savings through vast improvements in efficiency.

The result was a very successful set of best practices – a list of dos and don’ts that allow even the lowliest data centre operator to gain from the knowledge and experience of others.

Data centres are complex environments to manage and keep available, away from disruption. They are even more difficult to

optimise and weed out the inefficiencies.

There are so many compound interactions within a data centre that the BCS – the Chartered Institute for IT – and the Carbon Trust even created a simulation tool to help data centre operators to better manage their energy and cost efficiency.

USEFUL HINTS Despite all the metric work, the codes, training and tools available today, I still see some fundamental mistakes being made within the data centre. I’ve listed them below hoping that some will start becoming second nature to those who live and work in the data centre world.

Build/buy only the capacity that you need for the next 18 months maximum. Unused capacity equates to poor utilisation on your capital assets. It also means you’re typically operating at the low end of a devices energy efficiency performance curve and thus getting the worst efficiency possible out of it. So too much capacity is your worst enemy in terms of energy and cost efficiency.

Don’t let the cold and hot air remix within the data centre. This ultimately means trying your best to separate the two, which in turn means implementing hot or cold aisle containment and a strict policy of blanking plates in racks, plugs in cable holes in floor tiles, etc. However don’t break the bank trying to implement perfection. There is no need to spend good money on specialised containment systems unless you have other reasons to do so, there are many low-cost retro-fit containment systems out there now.

Your data floor should be comfortably warm, not uncomfortably cold. Inlet temperatures

Zahl founded the Data Centre Specialist Group within the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, in 2006. Since then the DCSG has attracted over 1,100 members from over 30 countries with the majority being Europe-based.

Zahl has championed energy efficiency since the inaugural meeting of the DCSG and has played an active role in the Institute’s contribution to industry best practice such as the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres. He has encouraged the DCSG committee to take an active role in UK policy and advisory services.

Personally he has been in the information technology and data centre business for over 17 years. Holding senior operational management posts in both FTSE100 and NASDAQ organisations Zahl, like all the other committee members, is a volunteer within the DCSG. can be up to 27ºC for almost all equipment now (old and new). However, be aware that magnetic tape doesn’t like it too hot, and also, unless you have good airflow management you may get hot-spots that mean some equipment exceeds 27ºC. There are lots of tools and consultants that can help you get this right but the message is: if you need to wear a pullover in your data hall, the supply temperature is too low and you’re wasting energy and money.

Switch off zombie servers. Most of us have equipment that is still powered up and wasting energy long after the people using it have left the building. Audit and find out who owns what and then turn off equipment that is no longer in use.

Finally, the best place to start is to take a look at the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres from which the list above has been extracted. There are another 107 best practices to look through in the Best Practice list within the code, which have been developed in conjunction with industry experts and with input from industry vendors worldwide.

There are plenty of other resources both from the BCS and elsewhere that should be considered as they’ve helped many make their data centres a better place already. The BCS also offers training on the understanding and implementation of the EU Code of Conduct via a three-day training course with an ISEB approved examination at the end.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: http://dcsg.bcs.org/

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

DATA CENTRES

IT IN AN AGE OF AUSTERITY How will budget cuts impact public sector departments? Redstor managing director, Paul Evans, looks at how IT departments can cope in the age of austerity THE PUBLIC SECTOR is about to enter the greatest period of change since the end of the Second World War. Uncertainty is certain. The cupboards are bare. The age of austerity is among us. Whatever metaphor one chooses to use, the facts are daunting.

The UK is facing public sector debt north of £800 billion and this excludes the massive future pension liabilities. Budget cuts are expected to be at least 25 per cent between 2010 and 2013. Becta, the government agency for effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning, is being shut down and merged with the rebranded Department for Education. The Building Schools for the Future programme has been stopped and the Autumn 2010 spending review is awaited with trepidation.

Add to this the immediate freeze in headcount, strict travel restrictions and imminent redundancies and it is clear that the next few years for the public sector will be tough.

PUBLIC SECTOR REPERCUSSIONS The age of austerity has wide repercussions for the public sector regardless of the department or role you are within. However, public sector technologies, and the teams that manage the technology infrastructure for the public sector, are predicted to be especially hard hit.

The situation public sector technology decision makers find themselves in is daunting. As cuts become increasingly widespread there are four central conclusions that can be drawn:

Planning an effective ICT strategy has never been harder. The status quo is no longer an option and it is time to take a fresh approach towards ICT

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• Departments will delay hardware/ software refreshes and upgrades • Ageing IT kit will increase support overheads • There will be greater stress on central IT teams • Departments accustomed to existing levels of service will expect more for less.

GOING GREEN As IT decision makers contemplate and plan for the next few years, the green agenda will continue to change the behaviours of these decision makers. The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Efficiency Scheme, which started operating in April will put further pressure on technology decision makers. This is essential to reduce UK carbon emission gases by 80 per cent before 2050 against a 1990 baseline.

Local authorities will be part of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, and responsible for the emissions of schools they maintain. Until now many schools and IT teams have been unaware of these responsibilities. From April 2011 carbon allowances must be purchased at a cost of £12 per allowance. To purchase the

Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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DATA CENTRES

correct quantity of licenses local authorities need to understand the current energy consumption of their schools estate and IT in order to predict the quantity of allowances to buy.

PLANNING AN ICT STRATEGY Planning an effective ICT strategy has never been harder. The status quo is no longer an option and it is time to take a fresh approach towards ICT. The central issue technology decision makers must address is efficiency whilst maintaining and improving service to their internal and external customers.

Decision makers must specifically look at common infrastructures, standards and encourage the automation of mundane and repetitive tasks to focus attention on the customer experience. A single public sector network and the creation of the

such as CentraStage, which reduces the cost of IT service delivery by offering remote device management through licence and asset management, software deployment, monitoring and remote takeover, have also been introduced by Redstor and it is now used by over 30 local authorities.

DOING MORE THROUGH AUTOMATION The best organisations confront the reality of the situation they see in front of them, adapt quickly and constantly look to refine and improve their recipe – the public sector can learn a great deal from this approach.

Private sector organisations are always looking at ways to improve, satisfy their customers and become more efficient. They realise they have to do more, better with less. Many IT departments in large organisations, such as

Key solutions for the new austere times such as CentraStage which reduces the cost of IT service delivery by offering remote device management through licence and asset management, software deployment, monitoring and remote takeover have also been introduced by Redstor and it is now used by over 30 local authorities Government G-Cloud are seen as solutions that are gaining momentum within the public sector. The advantages of each are already well made arguments and address the central issue of efficiency within a cost effective framework based on pay-as-yougo, rather than upfront capital expenditure and benefiting from economies of scale.

Other issues gaining increased momentum include shared services, data centre rationalisation and common designs for desktop services.

Established in 1998 Redstor’s focus is data management and protection and cloud based services and solutions. The company’s commercial heritage spans the financial, technology, oil and gas markets. In 2005 Redstor turned its attention to the public sector in particular the education market and the company became synonymous with RBUSS – Redstor Backup Service for Schools.

Today, over 85 local authorities and service providers use this service to backup data addressing 14,000 schools in the UK. As technology changes in the public sector take hold Redstor has been in the vanguard introducing cloud based technologies such as its online backup service and Redstor Protector, a laptop backup, encryption and remote wipe solution designed to drive down the costs of data protection and improve security for the public sector.

Key solutions for the new austere times

East Sussex Council, are already realising this ongoing reality and are looking to technology from focused service providers to assist them.

Using CentraStage for their schools’ IT support they have been able to automate over 100 tasks including the SIMS SQL upgrade, which previously would have been carried out manually enabling them to offer new enhanced services from the time savings achieved.

Another is Education Bradford, run

by Serco, who is an example of what can be achieved using new cloud based technologies. The organisation wanted to ensure its teachers and IT technicians were not distracted by unimportant yet urgent tasks such as SIMS SQL upgrades, security patch deployments and device management all of which can be very time consuming.

Education Bradford realised that in order to manage the IT in its 180 schools it would need a device management technology to help it provide efficient services and save time by automating mundane and repetitive tasks.

By implementing CentraStage, Education Bradford and Serco created an overall efficiency gain of 20 per cent and by offering schools the ability to turn off PCs and optimise power settings, Education Bradford has the potential to reduce its carbon emissions by up to 223 tonnes in line with the requirements of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.

Education Bradford has been using

CentraStage for over 12 months and has calculated the annual cost savings to be over £55,000 per annum. It is now able to offer new services to schools without having to take on additional staff and has calculated that over 2,500 hours of school ICT downtime has been avoided along with support call times reduced by 4.5 minutes on average, allowing staff to use their time more effectively and focus on teaching instead of monitoring and managing school technology.

NEW ECONOMY – NEW BUSINESS MODEL One of the main areas for the public sector has to be getting better value for money from IT. For years the IT industry has been dominated by large organisations, with well known and trusted brand names, selling expensive kit and licenses to customers that do not need them. Only now are organisations beginning to realise the amount of money that has been wasted over the years on idle equipment and unused licenses. Customers have of course realised this and with capital budgets being cut or frozen they are now looking at pay as you go/grow services and solutions. IT Service Providers need to change their culture and realise that customers are no longer interested in being sold IT software and hardware but instead require an on demand service backed by a good Service Level Agreement (SLA).

This demand is fuelling the growth of Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud based services such as Redstor’s online backup and Protector services and CentraStage. This allows users to save money by only paying for services as and when they need to use them and not being tied into long term contracts. Suppliers to the public sector need to be responsive to this and as CIOs in government seek better value for money and improved efficiencies, IT suppliers need to understand that their old ways of providing bespoke, underutilised and unique services for the individual needs of a customer is not sustainable and profitable in the long term.

In order to do more, at a better level, with less, CIOs must look to technology to help them achieve the efficiencies they crave.

With the right cloud based technologies not only can savings be made but the customer experience can be enhanced at the same time, as proved by Redstor over the last five years with online backup services and CentraStage solutions. What is certain is that change is inevitable and doing things in the same old way will produce the same old results. This is no longer an option in these new austere times.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Paul Evans is the managing director of Redstor, a leading provider of cloud services and data protection solutions.

Paul can be contacted at paul.evans@ redstor.com or at 0118 951 5200. www.redstor.com

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VIRTUALISATION

ENTER THE HYPERVISOR: THE CHANGING FACE OF BACKUP What is a hypervisor and what operational benefits can it deliver an organisation? asks Paul Roberts, sales director, SVMG EMEA at Vizioncore REMEMBER THAT FIRST FLAT-BED scanner you owned? The memory might not be as vivid as with your first car, but chances are you stayed up late at night discovering the joys of scanning old photos and documents.

After a while, the realisation hits that this could make saving all those receipts and tax forms a lot easier too. Instead of loading up the cabinet with files of paper documents, you can simply scan and capture an image of the entire mess, easily reproducing some or all of it at a later point in time.

IT professionals are making the same kind of discoveries with the multi-faceted benefits of virtualised environments. No longer bound

unique properties of the hypervisor to create entirely new ways of creating and restoring backups. They started by taking advantage of the fact that a virtual machine is actually a file and can be therefore backed-up more easily than physical systems. Benefits include: • The inherent ease in making snapshot images of an entire system • The hypervisor’s unique ability to allow users to transfer this system snapshot image to a different piece of hardware • The ability to extract a granular hierarchy of application objects, such as individual spreadshhets, from the virtual machine image.

By using backup tools that have been

No longer bound by the restrictions of individual physical servers, systems administrators and managers alike have found all kinds of reasons to embrace the Hypervisor – a clever layer of abstraction that allows entire server farms to be condensed down to a few choice pieces of hardware by the restrictions of individual physical servers, systems administrators and managers alike have found all kinds of reasons to embrace the Hypervisor – a clever layer of abstraction that allows entire server farms to be condensed down to a few choice pieces of hardware. The Hypervisor is the technology that virtualises physical hardware assets: the user is none the wiser, and the CIO can deliver significant operations benefits.

LESSONS LEARNED As is often the case, however, the new efficiencies and savings are sometimes realised only after the painful lessons learned by early adopters. New technologies can create difficulties for older software and technologies, which is particularly problematic in systems built to support mission critical functions like data backup. At the beginning of the virtualisation evolution, many pioneers found their existing backup and recovery applications fell short when it came to both protecting and restoring their virtual environments.

As backup companies made improvements to their applications to accommodate the new realities of virtualisation, a few forward-thinking innovators began to reconsider some of the

built to make the most of these unique characteristics, innovators found that capabilities of virtual environments significantly improved at the same time as reducing manual efforts for system administrators.

A NEW ERA FOR DATA BACKUP Scanning for changes remains one of the most prevalent performance problems affecting backup – a seemingly endless cat and mouse game with your file system (“did this or that file change since the last backup?”). This has made traditional backup particularly time and resource hungry.

With the computer’s file system now encapsulated into a single file on the host, an image-based backup approach eliminates the old process of file scanning.

The hypervisor presents image backup applications with a map of the individual data blocks that make up the entire virtual system. In a fraction of the time needed to scan the file system on physical machines, the backup application can select only those blocks which are active, changed, duplicate, deleted or empty. Using this capability, the backup application can make quick work of reading and transmitting only the necessary

blocks to the storage location of choice.

Backup administrators also find great advantages in the simplicity of such a virtual environment. A large burden on many administrators is the complex setup and management steps required by multiple backup agents, zones and server equipment required to protect physical environments.

Virtualisation can greatly simplify this setup, providing a unified platform for backup applications to collect and analyse the required data. Often, a single instance of an image-based application can protect multiple virtual host servers at once, sending multiple backup streams in parallel, directly to the storage target. Agents and complex server configurations become a thing of the past.

RECOVERY IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS BACKUP Because the backup routine happens on a daily basis, while recovery occurs (ideally) much less frequently, the process for recovery may not get the attention it deserves. Here again, a virtualised environment presents unique opportunities for improvement.

A virtual environment can deliver unprecedented flexibility with regards to what is being recovered, the point in time from which it is recoverd, the system to which it can be recovered, and how quickly it can be recovered.

Entire data centres can be restored with relative ease, on dissimilar hardware, without pre-staging system configurations and tweaking applicationlevel settings. Individual objects including files and e-mail objects can also be selected and restored. Recovered files can be located back to the original production systems, or be recovered on new systems and at new sites and locations.

Entire systems can be rebuilt from bare metal.

In short, recovery can be as global or granular as is required, working with the same protected images. This flexibility replaces the need for entire categories of specialty backup tools including bare-metal protection, applicationintegrated agents and the like. Instead, protection of the virtual system image provides all of the recovery required. This capability is known as Backup Once, Recover Any. So while the hypervisor may not have been created specifically for better backup, for many organisations it offers the secondary benefits of flexibility and saving money. It makes data protection and disaster recovery imminently more efficient; enhancing the prime reason you backup in the first place – to cover your assets.

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Solves Backup & Recovery Deduplication Virtualization eDiscovery Archive ©1999-2010 CommVault Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CommVault, CommVault and logo, the “CV” logo, CommVault Systems, Solving Forward, SIM, Singular Information Management, Simpana, CommVault Galaxy, Unified Data Management, QiNetix, Quick Recovery, QR, CommNet, GridStor, Vault Tracker, InnerVault, QuickSnap, QSnap, SnapProtect, Recovery Director, CommServe, CommCell, ROMS, CommValue, and Farline are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems, Inc. All other third party brands, products, service names, trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of and used to identify the products or services of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change without notice.

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IP EXPO

STORAGE STARS AT IP EXPO 2010 Storage is no longer a peripheral issue, says Neil Robertson-Ravo.

It is now a core component of the next generation corporate IT stack WHEN STORAGE EXPO CLOSED its doors for the final time last year, the storage vendor community was faced with finding a new forum in which to discuss and demonstrate its latest products and technologies. IP EXPO has proved to be the natural choice.

As the UK’s biggest and most comprehensive IT conference and exhibition, IP EXPO 2010 is really the ideal place for storage to be seen and discussed in the most relevant context. Not, as storage used to be treated, as a peripheral technology that played a supporting role alongside more “strategic” infrastructure technologies, but as a core component of the integrated technology stack that will be the foundation of tomorrow’s next generation business infrastructure.

THE PLACE TO BE Certainly, the storage community seems to agree that IP EXPO 2010 is the place to be, and has flocked to the event in a way that

will ensure that storage will be centre stage when the event opens as Earls Court on 20 October. It promises to be the storage event of the year, showcasing new products and technologies that aren’t just key to the future of storage, but to the future of enterprise IT. Primary storage deduplication is one such technology. Having already featured among the hot issues at IP EXPO 2009, primary storage deduplication is set to be massive at this year’s show, reflecting the momentum building behind a technology that is fast entering the enterprise IT infrastructure

mainstream. Why else would Dell recently have swooped on deduplication specialist Ocarina, just days before IBM announced plans to acquire Storwize, another storage compression developer with a strong dedupe story?

IP EXPO 2010 will provide plenty of opportunities to catch up on other leading edge developments in this area, including the latest announcements from EMC, one the leading edge players in the field. Of Particular note is EMC’s Celerra Unified Storage Platform which, while being a perfect platform for virtualisation it also provides

As the UK’s biggest and most comprehensive IT conference and exhibition, IP EXPO 2010 is really the ideal place for storage to be seen and discussed in the most relevant context

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IP EXPO

stability and easy to use managed services Organisations that have already, or are planning to go down the primary deduplication path may also be well advised to take a look at the solid state drive (SSD) products on display at IP EXPO 2010. Resource intensive processes like deduplication can stretch conventional mechanical drives and their associated processors to the limit. So, how can you ensure a good QoS and ensure that your disks and CPU’s are not being hammered to the detriment of normal operations such as storing and retrieving files that are used often? Well, some say you need to use SSDs. MAKING AN IMPRESSION Although still largely associated with high-end netbooks and smartphones SSDs are starting to make an impression in the enterprise mainstream, where they are beginning to offer an affordable alternative to mechanical drives in mission critical environments. Does this sound far-fetched? Don’t take my word for it then, but come along to IP EXPO 2010 and drop in on Stand 552 where SSD pioneer Fusion-io will be making a strong case for SSD at the heart of enterprise infrastructure.

I’m genuinely excited about Fusion-io’s participation in IP EXPO 2010 because it is a

company whose technology has the potential to be truly game changing, As Fusion-io itself points out: “The increasing demand for a next-generation, solid-state storage technology is driven by advancements in computer processors which, following Moore’s Law, have grown exponentially in performance.

Mechanical disks, on the other hand, follow Newtonian Dynamics and experience lackluster performance improvements, introducing a performance gap.”

“Ushering in a new era of applicationcentric, solid-state storage solutions for the enterprise, Fusion-io is revolutionising the way database, application and system administrators architect their data centres.

The company is closing the gap between processing power and storage needs by delivering breakthrough performance at a fraction of the cost of traditional disk-based storage systems. Now, the performance of an entire disk array can be placed inside a server.”

CHALLENGES AHEAD So should we be preparing to ditch our mechanical drives and switch to SSD? Well, not quite yet. Instead, over the next several years IT architects will be faced with the challenge of getting the best out of both worlds, and

one way of doing that may be to invest in automated sub-volume optimisation technology.

Historically, the business of juggling data across mission critical high-performance drives and value-focused archiving systems has been a labour intensive activity. Now, with companies such as 3Par (stand 847) and their adaptive optimisation engine are bringing new levels of automation to the business of data tiering, the time is fast approaching when storage will become almost entirely self-managing. It’s a development every IT manager will welcome, and one that will be critical to the deployment of cloud storage and application provisioning because, as delegates to IP EXPO 2010 will hear again and again, storage is no longer a peripheral issue, it is core technology at the heart of tomorrow’s virtualised and cloudbased business service delivery platform.

However, don’t just take my word for it. To really understand how today’s leading edge storage technologies are contributing to the creation of more effective IT future, see these technologies in action at IP EXPO 2010.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Register for your free place now at www.ipexpo.co.uk/gt

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As a public sector partner, you will have access to a dedicated account team to ensure Equanet delivers on its promises, as well as full online support where you can place orders and monitor your account with ease. Through this close working relationship we have become the partner of choice and more than just a supplier of IT equipment to over 25,000 local and national government authorities, departments and agencies across the UK. At Equanet we work with manufacturers and service providers to give our customers access to the products and services that are the mainstays of successful IT implementation in the public sector. Our team deal solely with similar customers and therefore has the necessary expertise and understanding to ensure that working with us is easy and stress free.

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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IP EXPO

STACKING UP THE FUTURE OF ENTERPRISE IT At IP EXPO 2010 the leading architects of the new IT landscape will share their future vision and address the pivotal IT question for 2011 – to build or buy tomorrow’s IT systems and services?

A LOT HAS HAPPENED SINCE IP EXPO

2009 closed its doors last October. Sun Microsystems, one of the visionary companies that shaped the dot-com era is now an Oracle subsidiary; Hewlett-Packard, for long a champion of the Unix world is now allied to Microsoft; and Cisco, the company whose routers built the worldwide web, is now the heart of an alliance with EMC and VMware.

These grand alliances, and numerous smaller partnerships, all have a common aim: the creation of an integrated “stack” of chipto-user interface technologies from which to build cloud computing infrastructure that will underpin the next generation of cloudbased enterprise IT systems and services.

SPOTLIGHT ON CLOUD COMPUTING

It is no surprise then that when IP EXPO 2010 opens its doors at Earls Court in London on 20 October, 48 per cent of the record number of UK IT professionals that have pre-registered for the event say that learning more about cloud is their primary reason for attending. They will not be disappointed.

This year, IP EXPO features keynote addresses from two of the leading architects of tomorrow’s IT world. Michael Capellas, chief executive officer of Acadia, the joint venture created by Cisco and EMC to help enterprises realise their virtual computing environment (VCE) infrastructure strategy, will share his view of how today’s rigid and unresponsive enterprise IT infrastructure can be transformed into a dynamic private cloud application platform. Xenophin Lategan, Enterprise Engineering Lead for Google Enterprise, will offer a contrasting vision of how companies may eventually dispense with the need to own and operate their own IT infrastructure, and source their IT services from the public cloud instead.

VITAL INSIGHTS

Between them, Capellas and Lategan will provide IP EXPO delegates with some vital insights into the future of enterprise IT, and in particular into probably the most compelling issue facing today’s IT professionals: should they build or should they buy their next generation of leading IT services? More than that, the presence of two such prominent industry figures at IP EXPO confirms the events growing stature as the UK’s premier enterprise IT strategy event.

Of course, there are other many reasons

Altogether, IP EXPO’s schedule of more than 210 seminars in 11 theatres promises to deliver this year’s most comprehensive programme of quality-controlled and educational IT events why IP EXPO 2010 is set to be the most important UK enterprise IT strategy exhibition and conference of the year. Not least of these is the events ability and willingness to stay abreast of the strategic issues of the day. Four years ago, for instance, IP EXPO 2006 focused on converged networks and the surging adoption of IP telephony. IP EXPO 2007 was one of the first UK industry events to highlight the emerging power of virtualisation and, last year IP EXPO 2009 provided delegates with similarly an early taste of what to expect from the gathering storm that is now called cloud computing.

PUTTING THE THEORY INTO ACTION

This year, having already helped to set the scene for cloud computing, IP EXPO is setting out to help delegates put cloud theory into action and emphasising the need for practical solutions. There will be plenty to see, with more than 230 suppliers preparing

to display new and existing systems at the show. More importantly, there will also be plenty to do, with a comprehensive schedule of practical lab sessions on networking, virtualisation and cloud, and expert demonstrations of how real systems can be deployed in real-time. IP EXPO delegates will have the best chance yet to gain hands on experience and understanding of the latest technologies and tools, including the opportunity to visit two live data centre demonstrations featuring VCE and other stacks in action, and a full two-day programme of Microsoft TechEd events.

Altogether, IP EXPO’s schedule of more than 210 seminars in 11 theatres promises to deliver this year’s most comprehensive programme of qualitycontrolled and educational IT events.

It is an unmissable event for the UK’s Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), IT architects, and all that work with them.

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www.governmentbusiness.co.uk

Visit the website to view the categorised product finder

PowerStudio™ helps organisations achieve their CRC objectives simply and efficiently

B

EING SEEN TO BE GREEN HAS taken on a whole new level of transparency with the introduction of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. The CRC scheme requires organisations that run up electricity bills of more than £500k per annum, to prove they are reducing their energy consumption and carbon footprint. Claiming to be a good corporate citizen now has to be backed by direct action, as well as words.

While many organisations have taken measures to reduce their carbon footprint, one area is almost constantly overlooked despite the quest to save energy; always-on PCs. According to BusinessGreen.com., always-on PCs cost UK plc over £300 million a year in wasted energy. Leaving PCs on and unused overnight, or during the weekend, is a bad habit that users have slipped into.

However, with energy usage now under such intense scrutiny, such behaviour is inexcusable, and bordering on irresponsible. Yet there are sizeable savings to be made by intelligently powering PCs down when not in use, meaning

organisations would benefit considerably by introducing an energy optimisation suite.

While energy optimisation suites are not new, they have rarely been easy to deploy or manage, and often frustrated PC users by powering down a machine at an inappropriate time, or by being cumbersome to bring it out of hibernation or standby mode. One of the latest energy optimisation suites to hit the market is PowerStudio 2.0 from UK-company Certero, a trusted solutions provider in IT Asset

Management and PC Power Management. It addresses all the former barriers to adoption by using Web 2.0 technologies, and it is built to sit on a default Microsoft infrastructure, so it doesn’t require any further technology expenditure to deploy. Tailored specifically for the task of intelligently powering down PCs that are not being used, it also has a very small footprint, so it will not slow down a user’s PC. PowerStudio will automatically save open files when putting a PC into power saving mode, which negates any concerns about work being lost.

Certero claims that PowerStudio can deliver return on investment in as little as four months. In terms of energy savings, Certero points to Hull City Council saving 390 tons of CO2 as a proof point of the results that can be achieved. That’s a considerable saving, and reason enough to switch off PCs by switching on PowerStudio to reduce energy and electricity costs.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: www.certero.co.uk

Return on Investment in 4 Months This is what you can expect from PowerStudio™. With cost saving initiatives that need to have an ROI in months not years and at the challenges presented with the IT Green Agenda, PowerStudio™, helps organisations achieve these objectives simply and efficiently. automatically powers down PCs in an intelligent manner when not in use.

“We find all the Certero products easy to use and extremely effective. What more could we ask for?”

Steve Moffat, Principle Officer for Infrastructure

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05/08/2010 10:13:52

Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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GREEN IT

PROMOTING THE SUSTAINABLE USE OF COMPUTING Margaret Ross, MBE secretary/vice chair of the BCS’s GreenIT Specialist Group, explains how end-users can green their workspace EVERYONE IS NOW THINKING ABOUT GREEN ISSUES – from the office to your home – and not only as a means of reducing the carbon footprint, but also of saving energy, fuel and money. The following are some ideas from various sources, which could help do all of this.

There are many well known actions that can be undertaken at work to reduce carbon footprint, fuel and cost, such as setting the printers for double sided printing as the default option, or possibly moving the printer in your own office out of reach. This necessitates getting up and walking a few paces to collect the output, and can discourage un-necessary printing. Some organisations have moved printing to centralised points, which is suitable for non-secure and non-confidential outputs, or have introduced a code system so that the printing will only be undertaken when the relevant person keys in their code to the printer.

You should remove screensavers, and replace them with still photographs on the desk. The automatic software to put systems into a sleep mode or to switch them off can be utilised, similarly with lights. Figures produced by the Carbon Trust indicated that

Recycling bins, including ones for used batteries can be provided. Many supermarkets and shops that sell sufficient number of batteries are now required to provide collection points for dead batteries, so possibly arrangements could be made for those collected in an organisation to be taken to one of these collection points, subject to the supermarket’s agreement. Some of these approaches to greenness can also be utilised at home.

Consider arranging the start times of meetings or shifts to encourage car sharing or allowing alternative travel arrangements, such as the reduced train costs for off-peak travel. The use of videoconferencing, possibly using free tool Skype, as an alternative to travelling to meetings, and also telephone conferencing could be used with shared access to information via the Internet, again removing the travelling time as well as the travelling costs.

WORKING FROM HOME Teleworking on a five days a week basis has now been established by many organisations, therefore reducing the need for buildings

There are many well known actions that can be undertaken at work to reduce carbon footprint, fuel, and cost, such as setting the printers for double sided printing as the default option, or possibly moving the printer in your own office out of reach “lighting an office overnight wastes enough energy to heat water for one thousand cups of tea” and that “a typical window left open overnight in winter will waste enough energy to drive a small car for more than 35 miles.”

INCORPORATING STAFF Staff can be asked to contribute ideas for reduction of carbon footprint, saving fuel and costs. Visual representations of the amount of usage per month, of paper or printer cartridges could be displayed. Hopefully these displays will become smaller as the months progress and the usage of paper and cartridges are gradually reduced. Other waste parts can be used to create major statues like the WEEE man in Cornwall (www.weeeman.org).

and the carbon footprint generated by those buildings. Security issues, such as those related to technology and the back-up of equipment or the local technical support for the teleworkers in addition to ensuring ergonomic facilities for them at their homes, need to be considered.

The use of some form of tele-cottage or shared resources are arranged by some organisations.

Many teleworkers have been very pleased with the reduction in time of travel and of cost.

Teleworking could be encouraged on say one or two days per week, as this would still allow face-to-face communication and meetings. The training and security issues can be considered and possibly minimised by this partial teleworking solution.

Today it is necessary to build teleworking into

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Margaret is Professor of Software Quality at Southampton Solent University. She is active on the BCS Ethics Forum’s Carbon Footprint Working Group as well as with the ISEB GreenIT Qualifications. She is on various committees, including BCS Quality SG, BCS e-Learning SG, BCSWomen and of BCS Council and very active in both the Branches and SG communities of the BCS. Margaret is FBCS, CITP, CSci, CEng, FHEA and also Honorary FBCS. This is the second article Margaret has written for Government Technology.

The first one, filled with more tips on greening your workplace, can be accessed on the GT website www.governmenttechnology.co.uk a good business continuity plan. Encouraging teleworking, even on one day per month, ensures that the systems work appropriately as well as reducing the lighting, heating or air-conditioning for that day. This aspect of the business continuity plan is essential when considering the 2012 Olympic Games, when transport might become very difficult, not only in the London area, but throughout the UK. LEGISLATION The new Energy Bill and the pressures to reduce the UK’s carbon footprint by 2020 and by 2050, together with the introduction of carbon trading has brought green IT to the top of many managers concerns.

Many organisations have outsourced areas of IT services to other countries, so apparently reducing their carbon footprint. But this might not be a case in the future, when the carbon footprint of the outsourcers might be added to carbon footprint of the client organisation. This could certainly raise some key questions prior to new or renewed contracts with outsourcers on exactly how green their organisation is.

Although many of these actions seem to make very little difference to the wider problem of reducing an organisation’s carbon footprint, I personally think the expression that “every little helps” is worth taking on board.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: www.bcs.org

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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GREEN IT

Written by Rich Tribe, joint managing director of Revolution Events

GREEN IT GATHERS MOMENTUM After two years at The Barbican near The City, Green IT Expo 2010 has refined its format even further this year, to deliver even more educational value at the prestigious QEII Conference Centre near Westminster

BY CONDENSING A WEALTH of thought leadership, briefings on the latest innovations and other educational content into a single information-packed day, Green IT Expo provides a highly time-effective forum for public sector organisations to learn how sustainable computing will help them to cut costs, increase efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint across all areas of their activities.

Best of all, attendance at the event is still free-of-charge for decision-makers in this important area, including executives

working in IT, procurement, finance and other key management roles.

Key speakers this year include experienced analysts from Forrester Research, Ovum/ Datamonitor and Frost & Sullivan – as well as senior representatives from the Cabinet Office, WWF’s Climate Savers Computing initiative (founders of the global Earth Day), BCS The Chartered Institute of IT, Defra and important technology suppliers such as Microsoft, IBM, Event Zero and VMware.

Research conducted by Forrester during the

Green IT Expo provides a highly time-effective forum for public sector organisations to learn how sustainable computing will help them to cut costs, increase efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint across all areas of their activities

first half of 2010 shows that green IT plans and activities have generally progressed strongly this year, despite the economic downturn and a lack of formal budgets and priorities.

Although only around one quarter (26 per cent) of organisations have budget directly allocated to green IT, Forrester reports that adoption of green IT initiatives is much higher, approaching 70 per cent in key areas such as the data centre and distributed IT. Infrastructure and operations professionals are space gathering momentum by embedding green policies into procurement processes, IT operations and the final disposal of new infrastructure investments.

Similarly, Forrester’s seventh Green IT survey of enterprises and small and medium-size enterprises (also conducted in Q2 2010) indicates that green IT adoption has remained steady in SMEs during the past year, forming a vital part of many organisations’ IT strategy.

Cost continues to be the core underlying motivation behind the implementation of green IT. While this is understandable,

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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GREEN IT

especially during a time of budget restraint, Forrester expects to see other motivations, such as brand perception, increase in the future as IT plays a more holistic role within overall sustainability strategy.

UK AND GERMANY LEAD THE WAY The UK and German governments are also making strong progress on the widescale adoption of green IT principles, with the UK’s efforts being led by the Cabinet Office’s CIO Council and progressive green ICT champions such as Chris Chant and Catalina McGregor.

Sadly, this commitment to more sustainable IT practices is not matched by the public sector in Europe as a whole, according to a recent analysis of European Union and national government policies on green IT, commissioned by Dell and conducted

by Ovum analyst Sarah Burnett.

The research reported that green IT projects in the European public sector are very much in the early stages of adoption and the motivation is invariably to benefit an individual organisation, even where projects are underway. When asked to comment on the importance of green IT’s role in combating global warming and climate change, most respondents felt that these could not replace cost as the primary driver for decision making. In most cases, cost savings or revenue generation were still considered more important than the power efficiency or environmental impact of IT systems, unless there was a strong political directive to the contrary.

Since the term green IT can cover a number of different aspects, Ovum reports that there is very little agreement on how to define and measure progress. Hence, the first challenge for EU governments is to coordinate a more focused and disciplined approach to definition and measurement so that all stakeholders are referring to the same thing when discussing green IT. Despite the more enlightened approaches of the UK and Germany, the report suggests that it is insufficient for just two nations to lead, as the results will be piecemeal and modest.

Conversely, a coordinated pan-European effort has the potential to yield not just environmental benefits, but also greater cost savings across the board. The current state of affairs can often lead to an initiative that gets the ball rolling in one department but then has any gains offset by another department completely ignoring green initiatives. With too many EU organisations, one arm is working hard to keep the body moving in an environmentally responsible direction while others are locking up and refusing to move.

COMPARING POLICIES The paper goes on to compare EU policies with US national policy on green IT, which it describes as having made a “much bigger and definite commitment to sustainability in general”. In the US, much of the national policy is related to stimulus spending and isn’t

targeted specifically at green IT, such as the creation of green jobs surrounding alternative energy production and the development of a smart grid system. But green spending policies in government procurement and the adoption of energy-efficiency standards such as Energy Star for data centres, demonstrate that in many key areas, the US government is ahead of the EU when it comes to developing the green IT sector.

The report concludes that the situation is unlikely to change unless there is pressure for action from national governments and the EU itself. A more strategic approach will be required to drive green IT forward. This should ideally be linked to sustainability targets for specific organisations, together with the development of a more robust business case for green IT so that it can win approval from senior executives, the development of standardised measurement frameworks, and the agreement of consistent terminology to provide better communication and operational benefits.

THE VIRTUOUS TRIANGLE OF GREEN IT As more public and private sector organisations implement successful sustainable computing initiatives, an increasingly holistic view of green IT is finally emerging, comprising three different but entirely complimentary aspects: Firstly, IT operations need to significantly reduce their level of energy consumption – to minimise their own contribution to the problem of CO2 emissions and deliver essential efficiency gains for increasingly complex systems in the future.

Secondly, organisations need to explore the potential of IT and other new technologies to facilitate greener processes across the rest of the enterprise, eg. through mobile/home working and teleconferencing or replacing paper-based systems with electronic documents.

Finally, new IT applications and industry standards need to be developed to effectively measure, monitor and control the environmental impact of every organisational activity, including IT itself, in order to provide reliable information for decision- making, modelling different scenarios and validating the actual outcomes.

This Virtuous Triangle of green IT transcends the simple cost-saving benefits that have always been apparent, instead positioning IT as the key enabler for more sustainable business as a whole. In particular, IT’s powerful reporting capabilities offer a much-needed antidote to the vicious circle of knock-on and side effects that commonly derail carbon reduction initiatives, when it becomes apparent that improvements in one area have had a counteracting negative impact elsewhere in the organisation or further down the supply chain.

These three faces of green IT were highlighted at last year’s Green IT Expo by Warren Wilson, research director at Ovum, who will be expanding further on the axiom of ‘You can’t manage what you can’t

Chris Mines, Senior VP, research director, Forrester Research

measure’ at this year’s event in London.

Green IT Expo 2010 is the UK’s leading forum for sustainable computing, taking place on Tuesday 9 November at the QEII Conference Centre in London.

Through a high-value combination of inspirational keynotes, breakout sessions, supplier briefings and experiencesharing opportunities, this acclaimed educational event will help you to: • Understand the key challenges for IT departments and the industry as a whole • Keep up-to-speed with significant developments at a local and international level • Ensure compliance with the latest legislation and government directives • Review a wide range of environmentallyfriendly IT products and services • Implement green initiatives that improve efficiency and reduce costs • Harness IT to facilitate more responsible business practices • Formulate sustainable IT strategies for the short, medium and long-terms • Contribute directly to your organisation’s wider sustainability objectives • Develop a more holistic view of green IT and its full potential Places at Green IT Expo 2010 are offered freeof-charge to IT and operational decision-makers who are developing sustainable computing and business strategies. Due to venue constraints and the one-day format of the event, places are strictly limited so please register now to reserve your free place and receive the full programme as soon as it is finalised.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Or for further information regarding exhibitor or speaker opportunities, please contact Sara Clark Tel: +44 (0)1892 820934 E-mail: sara@revolution-events.com Web: www.greenitexpo.com

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PAYMENTS

EFFICIENCY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY RSM 2000 Ltd takes a look at the easy way to process card and Direct Debit payments GOVERNMENT CUTS are beginning to trickle through now that George Osborne swings his axe in what is destined to be just the first of many blows, as the coalition government does its best to return our national finances to the black.

Throughout the election it was impossible for any political party to avoid tricky questions about when and where the cuts would take place. Politicians were, at best, vague about their answers despite the media pushing them to be specific. Now we are beginning to get some answers.

Although details are still sketchy, it is clear that the pressure on the public sector is increasing and, as the screws continue to tighten, it will become incumbent upon all public sector organisations to make savings and efficiencies wherever possible to meet their obligations.

Many of these savings will inevitably be painful.

ACHIEVING SAVINGS For many organisations, however, there is an area in which technology can be used to achieve painless savings through using modern technology to handle the collection of funds by Direct Debit and card payments.

The application of this technology can make a real difference to any organisation – council, school, leisure centre, library – that has the need to collect payments for its services.

Any company that stores or transmits any cardholder data electronically must be Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS) compliant. Similarly, any company taking Direct Debit payments must have a Service User Number (SUN). The easiest and quickest way of taking ad-hoc payments from customers is using a card transaction, however, achieving PCI-DSS can be an expensive, laborious process.

Collecting regular amounts from customers is best done by Direct Debit, but obtaining your own SUN can be equally complex.

A secure solution is available that takes away this headache by providing all your payment services off site, complying fully with the regulations but removing the administrative burden from you. What’s more, the solution uses your existing PCs and broadband connections to take payments quickly and accurately, increasing efficiency and giving you the ability to process more payments during the day, without the need for capital investment.

Using a secure virtual terminal system, is very easy. You simply log on to the secure webpage using a standard internet browser and your unique login details and you can be processing customer payments in minutes.

There is no need for specialist software or expensive staff training and all customer data is held within the secure host environment,

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By taking an enlightened approach to streamlining payment services, the public sector can help lead the way to greater efficiency demonstrating that it is serious about reducing waste and improving productivity in the long term meaning the PCI-DSS compliance is much simpler. Other benefits include: • Full reporting facilities in a range of formats • 24/7 secure system access • Multi-currency support • Support for Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, Solo, Delta and American Express • Automated regular payment facility without need to re-enter card data each time.

DIRECT DEBIT SERVICES Direct Debit is the preferred method for collecting regular payments. It is a well established, trusted and convenient way for people to pay their bills without worrying about missing a payment. Standing order payments are fine when the amounts being paid rarely change. However, if the amount changes frequently, it’s vitally important for the supplier to maintain control over the transaction using Direct Debit.

The benefits of Direct Debit for all organisations are compelling: • Improved cashflow

• Easier budgeting • Reduced bank charges • Simple to change collection amounts • Reduced debt collection costs • Improved customer retention • Simpler control of customer payments These benefits make Direct Debit a very sensible and attractive option for most companies.

Banks too are very keen for their account holders to collect funds by Direct Debit but they are not always so willing to set them up with a facility. They usually ask to see three years’ accounts, which might not always be available, may require an unlimited liability warranty, and they charge high fees too.

To combat the obvious drawbacks, yet retain all the benefits, many companies nowadays are using a payment services company to provide the Direct Debit facility whether or not they have their own SUN. ORGANISATIONS WITH THEIR OWN SUN If your organisation already has its own SUN you can, of course, go directly to your bank or

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PAYMENTS

BACS bureau to handle Direct Debit payments.

However, by choosing a service through a payment services company you can both decide the level of service required and benefit from the highly competitive rates achievable through extended buying power. The system requires no specialist software and no specialist staff training. Payments are made directly into an organisation’s bank and charges are modest.

When using a payment service company you may expect a range of management and reporting tools to help you manage Direct Debit payments in an efficient manner and budget more effectively. These may include: • New instruction submission by AUDDIS (Automated Direct Debit Instruction Service) enabling organisations to send new Direct Debit instructions to their customers’ banks electronically instead of in paper format • Collection files submission • Access to reports 24/7 • Automated collections • E-mail alerts for cancellations, amendments, unpaids, etc.

• Monthly invoicing of charges • Full database management • Collections dates of choice • Easy reconciliation of payments • Dedicated customer support team

If your organisation doesn’t have its own SUN a payment services company can offer a facilities management service that provides Direct Debit facilities without requiring you to apply to your bank. The company will do this by applying for a unique SUN for each customer backed by its own guarantee. The company will handle all the paperwork and gain the necessary approvals for each customer to operate under Direct Debit rules. This enables organisations to sign up their customers for Direct Debit payments – on paper forms, by telephone or online – with minimal delay, with no tiresome form filling, and without the need to provide the usual guarantees.

SECURE PAYMENTS An increasing amount of business is traking place online as time-strapped customers look to complete purchases of goods and services at a single visit to their home or work PC. Organisations having their own SUN or using a facilities management service may choose to allow their customers to set up Direct Debit payments using securely hosted web pages.

These pages can be linked seamlessly to an organisation’s own website and branded accordingly to provide the customer with a

complete transaction apparently from a single source. The web pages can be configured to each customer’s requirements to include any relevant information such as data protection statements or Gift Aid. Services typically include simple payment screens for customers, clear visibility of transactions, and affiliate tracking.

Nobody is looking forward to the effects of the government cuts that are already becoming a reality and are likely to become more onerous at least for the next few years.

Public sector organisations will not only have an increased responsibility to avoid waste and operate as efficiently as possible in the future, it will become a practical necessity. One way of achieving those economies is with the judicious and practical application of technology to increase efficiency and help provide a better service for the tax-paying public.

By taking an enlightened approach to streamlining payment services, the public sector can help lead the way to greater efficiency demonstrating that it is serious about reducing waste and improving productivity in the long term.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: www.rsm2000.co.uk

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PROCUREMENT

INCREASE SAVINGS WITH STRATEGIC ESOURCING Due North’s managing director Alan Gray discusses how to achieve more efficient procurement BANK BAILOUTS, A DEEP RECESSION and an emergency budget – the past two years have been turbulent for public sector spending and the economy isn’t as bright as it once was.

The budget deficit is expected to be £155bn this year, with total national debt at £903bn. As the coalition government puts measures in place to reduce the budget deficit, this is having a direct impact on public sector spending.

The 2009 Operational Efficiency Programme found that the public sector has the potential to become an extremely powerful purchaser, with over £175bn spent on external goods in 2008/09.

It also found that it is realistic to achieve a total of around £6.1bn of annual value for money savings by the end of 2013/14 through greater uptake of collaborative procurement; of this, £5.7bn could be delivered by the end of 2011/12.

If we put figures to one side and look at reality, public sector procurers will have to purchase with less money and still make

savings. Public sector procurers can play a vital role in making important savings. The question is, how can this be achieved?

THE REALITY Procurers need smarter purchasing, which can be achieved through implementing esourcing and contract management software, and buying collaboratively.

In the past 18 months, the government has been vocal in its desire to increase uptake of esourcing and collaborative buying.

The Glover Report, published by HM Treasury in November 2008, recommended that the government should issue all tender documentation electronically by 2010 and this should be kept as brief as possible.

Business should be permitted to tender electronically for all public sector contracts by 2010; no “paper only” tenders should be required after this date, with an ambition for all tenders to be electronic by 2012.

David Cameron and the government coalition has written a letter to government departments

setting out plans to open up government data to the public to hold politicians and public bodies to account, reduce the deficit and deliver better value for money in public spending. As part of a new set of standards for transparency, a number of specific commitments to open up government data and increase transparency were announced.

Local and central government are being asked to publish all items of spend over £500 and £25,000 respectively, online from January 2011 and November 2010, and new contracts and tender documents to be published in full from January 2011.

BENEFITS OF ESOURCING Implementing an esourcing and contract management solution can bring a variety of benefits to the public sector, mainly improving procurement efficiency and reducing costs.

Esourcing significantly reduces the supply management costs by automating, simplifying and accelerating source to procure processes for goods and services. Esourcing solutions

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should increase bottom line cost savings delivered by sourcing and procurement functions by focusing on strengthening supplier relationships and streamlining tender processes.

Greater savings can, however, be made by public sector organisations collaborating in the procurement of goods and services.

This enables the organisations to drive prices down by providing suppliers with greater quantities enabling them to reduce margins.

A good example of collaboration is to be seen in the set of reverse auctions conducted by the OGC over the past months, which have enabled disparate public sector bodies to make savings in obtaining common goods.

OVERCOMING POLITICAL ISSUES The difficulty in collaborating is that political issues have to be overcome and by getting together with others there may have to be compromises on the exact specification between organisations. Therefore, common sense must prevail. The leading esourcing applications will enable each organisation to take part with specific roles in the procurement and evaluation process enabling everyone to participate in the sourcing process.

The process can be started by the use of contract registers across regional groups to identify common goods and services and when contracts expire, gathering the common requirements and undertaking the sourcing process.

Collaboration has been proven to work but to do so it needs the initiative to be taken by regional groups, of which there are many, to gather organisations and together drive the process forward.

In itself this may also be difficult as the independence of public sector organisations may prevail but there are major savings to be had through the collaboration process.

The National Audit Office and the Audit Commission have called for public bodies to work together much more effectively than they currently do to maximise savings from procurement activities.

Effective supplier sourcing can have a direct impact on the cost, quality, and performance of the tendering process.

A comprehensive esourcing solution helps to identify and qualify suppliers, negotiate best value agreements, derive the optimal award allocation and drive product collaboration, process standardisation and knowledge management across the sourcing solution.

A solution increases efficiency by reducing buyer time in the tender process. Getting best value entails creating competition between suppliers qualified to provide the goods or service. Increasing efficiency in the procurement process involves streamlining the process and being able to undertake it in a correct, repeatable way.

Taking government directives into consideration when choosing a solution,

there are several aspects that should be considered when looking to the market.

A close and open collaboration between the private and public sectors has been strongly encouraged by the government to ensure economic development and improve competition. In the past, the Byatt Report emphasised the need to make contract opportunities available to a wide range of suppliers by posting them on public sector websites. The more recent Glover Report reinforced the government’s desire to strengthen and broaden supplier involvement and collaboration.

The obvious way to notify suppliers about potential opportunities is to encourage them to register their areas of expertise and to make contracts available to both registered suppliers and the open market.

An opportunities notice board lets you say goodbye to the traditional, labour intensive way of posting and advertising contract opportunities and RFQ’s.

Benefits include: • Cost savings by eliminating traditional advertising • Saves resource on managing supplier cold calling • More competitive pricing as opportunities are open to all relevant suppliers • Wider supplier choice ELECTRONIC TENDERING The drive for increased efficiency and cost reduction in the procurement process is a high priority agenda item for government and all public sector organisations.

A secure, auditable procurement environment can help both buyers and suppliers maximise savings through a fast, flexible and sustainable electronic platform. The electronic tendering process is also a major contributor to environmental improvements by completely removing the need to print and post documents, saving time and money.

Benefits of etendering include: • Encourages compliance to the organisations procurement process • Measurable ROI • Improves productivity E-AUCTIONS The pressure is growing on buyers to demonstrate both quantifiable and intangible savings especially in the current economic downturn. The cost savings are to be accompanied by quality of service and goods as well as fair contract terms, and there is a strong drive for best value matching of qualitative returns with price.

A proven method of achieving this is to undertake a reverse auction at the end of the buying process, where the best qualitative results can be used in conjunction with price to achieve best value.

In March, the Office for Government

Commerce’s Centre for eAuctions published its Forward plan for eAuctions. The OGC hopes that eAuctions will save the public sector up to £270m by the end of 2011/12.

Benefits embrace: • Efficient, open and transparent negotiations • Encourages competitive pricing in an open market • Enables the use of qualitative measures properly weighted along with price CONTRACT MANAGEMENT Equally important in the process is contract management. The continued drive to increase efficiency and reduce costs in the public sector has created a need to improve contract management and provide better visibility into supplier performance. The need to remove costly contract overruns and ensure ongoing contract and supplier agreed objectives has become mandatory. Ineffective contract management can lead to reduced savings, increased risks and lack of compliance.

Contract management gives the buyer the ability to manage a contract through to completion, managing the cycle from business requirement through advertising and sourcing to management of the contract.

A contract management solution, which integrates with an esourcing solution, should provide full visibility into contracts, enhancing compliance and reporting whilst streamlining the contracting and administration processes.

Benefits of contract management include: • Ability to manage a contract and its suppliers through the total life cycle • Improve contract visibility • Reduce contract cycle time FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS Implementing an esourcing and contract management solution can be relatively straightforward. Many solutions on the market offer a Software as a Service based solution, which can be accessed from anywhere in the world with a web browser and internet connection. A hosted solution requires no additional in house IT infrastructure and reduces implementation times.

In times of reduced budgets and spending freezes on ICT, it may be challenging to find funding for a solution. The government’s own measurement of the savings gained by merely issuing tenders electronically is estimated at £1,000 per tender. This does not include the benefits gained from additional competition or carbon footprint saving.

Esourcing providers may also offer a SaaS based payment plan; with no upfront costs it may be an easier payment option than having to allocate a higher capital budget.

Look at the market thoroughly. There are a number of providers, some on framework agreements, others not. If you are making an investment, it’s worth shopping around to get the best solution for your needs.

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OPEN SOURCE

PROVIDING MORE FOR LESS Peter Dawes-Huish, CEO, LinuxIT, considers how adopting Open Source based systems can help organisations achieve significant efficiency savings customer engagement, satisfaction, value for money and more. But in my experience the IT manager still faces the same barriers to success; a backlog of projects; an inadequate budget; a shortage of planning time; unrealistic expectations or worse, unknown expectations. In these respects Open Source can be an IT life saver, enabling the IT manager to do more, with fewer resources.

Leaving aside the freedom, choice and power that OS offers, to my mind the benefits of OS fall into these categories: • Value creation: ensuring return reflects IT investment • Economic incentives: real savings, from day one • Reliability: robust, proven and supported enterprise platforms • Ease of deployment: plenty of support available at an engineering and user level • Compliance: systems that tick all the boxes

Peter Dawes-Huish of LinuxIT, and colleague, at Number 10

I ATTENDED A SEMINAR the other day and I was amazed just how much misinformation there was around the adoption of Open Source based software and the services surrounding it.

I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps it’s because Open Source (OS) by its very nature as a developer-led resource is such a fast moving field. Or perhaps those within the OS community and providers of Enterprise Open Source just need to work harder at getting across the message that OS can transform the management and performance of IT environments, for example, its ability to contribute towards IT innovation, interoperability, reliability, flexibility, return on investment and so on.

BARRIERS TO ADOPTION Of course fear, uncertainty and doubt surrounding the adoption of Open Source for reasons such as lack of support, lack of security and liability has been widespread for years.

But this is now melting away rapidly. This is

evidenced by the recent encouragement from government for departments to adopt OS, and of course the number of public and private sector organisations embracing both community and enterprise open source platforms as a key element of their mission critical systems.

Whatever the reason for the scepticism towards OS in some quarters, it’s a pity as it can generally provide the answer to the relentless demands on IT professionals for more features, functions and applications – for less or the same cost.

Of course most IT environments use OS derived code. Even so, many organisations and IT professionals are missing out on the proven and unique benefits that Open Source can bring because of their passive, even casual, approach rather than a proactive stance.

OPEN SOURCE: AN IT LIFE SAVER We all know IT is no longer a side show in organisations. It’s central to efficiency,

HELPING THE PUBLIC SECTOR From our experience in serving the public sector over many years we have seen the growing preference for OS and the benefits flowing from its adoption, alongside outsourced support, and the benefits flowing from this.

For the Health Protection Agency, OS adoption was, in their words, “a no brainer” as they were using tools “developed by scientists for scientists”. They have seen cost savings, the benefits of having support that is readily available, and the system reliability and flexibility that OS can provide.

Bristol City Council and Carmarthenshire County Council have seen their heavy use of open source increase system productivity.

In addition, by outsourcing support they have freed up their internal IT support team, enabling them to focus upon core IT activities, and given them the ability to draw upon outsourced specialist knowledge and experience to ensure infrastructure compatibility, enhanced system user experiences, and the maintenance of security and software updates.

Another example is Camden Council who wanted to centralise all their enquiries into one contact centre. By providing a single view of the citizen their aim was to reduce the confusion associated with multiple Council contact points for residents and improve service. They achieved this through an enterprise Linux platform from Red Hat.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit www.linuxit.com or visit stand B65 at 360IT, The IT Infrastructure Event, 22-23 September 2010, Earls Court 1, London.

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UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

COMMUNICATING WITH THE COMMUNITY Can an SMS text message strategy deliver information of real value to your community?

A NUMBER OF FORWARD THINKING councils are now incorporating text messaging into the way they communicate with their community and importantly giving the public a low cost, simple route to talk to the council.

Importantly text messaging is socially and digitally inclusive, over 98 per cent of UK adults now have a mobile phone. Many councils are adopting simple-to-use interfaces from companies such as txttools.co.uk. This service allows the user to send and receive SMS text messages from their computer and track the delivery, much like e-mail, but with audited delivery. Having the ability to create discreet groups of customers, clients, patients or staff can have major benefits when you want everyone to be notified with a single message.

The tool is completely flexible, so you can send a message to a group or to an individual person. Messages can be sent instantly or scheduled at a later time and date. The schedule can be set months or even years in advance and sent out when that message is relevant. Messages can even be edited right up until the scheduled time to allow for changes in arrangements. Customers can be added to lists requesting information and replies may be automated or custom sent.

Many councils are now incorporating txttools into their disaster planning, it is proven to be the fastest, most reliable method for communicating with large groups of people.

WHAT ARE THE PRACTICAL USES FOR COUNCILS? txttools can be used for emergency planning, for environmental notification and enquiries. For example flood warnings, electricity outages, water, transport, health warnings and severe weather warnings.

It can be used for repairs and maintenance, such as repair reminders, surveys, contractor information, repair requests, enquiries, complaints, contractor orders, contract followups, gas repairs, inspection notifications, health and safety information and notices.

Other popular uses include using SMS for staff contact, meetings, appointment arrangements and reminders. It can also be used for youth services, tenant surveys, intruder alerts, anti-social behaviour, and reporting crime/vandalism. Uses also include voting both for staff surveys and public surveys, rent arrears reminders and rent remittances. Many libraries are using SMS text reminders for overdue books and to tell customers that reserved books are now in the Library. Sports centres can use it to confirm bookings and to tell people about events. ‘Neighbourhood watch’

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groups can use it to let people in a very specific set of postcodes know if there is any activity in their area that they should be aware of.

WHY ARE THEY CHOOSING TXTTOOLS®? txttools have an uninterrupted message delivery in the public sector for the last nine years. They are used by councils, police forces, schools, hospitals, clinics, connexions and over 45 per cent of the UK colleges and universities. It is a robust sophisticated messaging platform that is easy to use underpins the companies business.

The txttools team have and continue to respond to development needs of the community. The application includes an array of features; two way messaging and secure online access 24 hours a day, seven days a week from any PC (using the same security as online banking). You can send messages to groups or individuals, instantly or schedule for later delivery. You can also track delivery of every message.

It is possible to convert text message to voice mail if the number is a landline.

There are also inbox rules, RSS feeds and auto responders. The txttools team have an outstanding reputation in both their faceto-face customer training and unlimited support which is included in the package.

WHAT THE USERS ARE SAYING Lisa Holland, Youth Services Worker – Information Services at Stirling Council, said: “We use the system in our youth texting service in Stirling to group young people together in areas, interests, or groups, so we can contact them with information relevant to them.

“We find that the system is easy to use which has enabled us to enrol this out to our staff so they can use it to engage with young people in youth groups or projects that they are involved in. The support and guidance we have had from txttools over the past two years has been brilliant.“ Barry McHenry, e-Services Coordinator at Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership Ltd said: “We use txttools to contact young people about Connexions services and have more recently added the emergency text system; this proved invaluable during the freezing snow conditions in January, when we were able to get instant messages out to all our staff at relatively low cost.

“We have been working with txttools for nearly 18 months and have been really impressed with the service and the results it’s generated for us. We also recommended txttools to several partners who are equally happy with the product.”

Here are some links to councils using txttools: • www.fifedirect.org.uk/doitonline/ index.cfm?fuseaction=online.alert • www.stirling.gov.uk/index/ lifeyouthservices/info_txt.htm • www.stirling.gov.uk/my/ • www.fareham.gov.uk/general/texting.aspx • www.eastriding.gov.uk/cs/streetscene/ maintenance-operations/textmessageservice/

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: +44 (0)113 234 2111 E-mail: info@txttools.co.uk Web: www.txttools.co.uk

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UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

THE BENEFITS OF INTEGRATING COMMUNICATION SERVICES While on the face of it unified communications may seem to be an expense in these tough economic times, when you dig deeper there are clear benefits to be had, argues Les Whitten, senior consultant, Redstone Converged Solutions SO UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS – two small words that often mean different things to different people and never seem to be out of the IT press at the moment. In these times of economic right sizing the big question that’s being asked of unified communications is: “What have you done for me lately?”

Now that’s a pretty broad question that could have a wide ranging answer but let’s focus on one particular aspect of unified communications – mobility – and how a small jumble of plastic and metal pieces (commonly referred to as the mobile phone) has the potential to do more for us than we may realise. However, before we kick off, a quick bit of history is called for.

UNIFIED COMMS OVER THE YEARS In the dark ages of VoIP and IP telephony the meaning of unified communications was somewhat different than it is today. Back then it meant the ability to have voice mails in your inbox as a .wav attachment to an e-mail, to have your MWI (messaging waiting indicator) light synched to the read/un-read status for that e-mail and to call into your voice mail box from your mobile phone and have your e-mails read back to you by Metal Mickey.

The arrival of smart phone devices whether they be Blackberry or Windows Mobile has somewhat diminished the need for this particular piece of the unified communications pie. However, the vast increase in performance of both the mobile phones and the networks they run over (specifically data services such as GPRS) has opened up a whole new world of applications that have resulted in the mobile phone becoming an increasing valuable business tool.

KEEPING PHONE BILLS DOWN Spiralling monthly mobile phone bills are typically top of the agenda for any organisation with a high proportion of mobile users.

Single Number Reach or the ability to twin (simultaneously ring) your IP desk phone with your mobile phone allows a user to pick up a call to their DDI (direct dial-in) number on either device. In fact it doesn’t have to just be a mobile phone, it can be any directly dialable number such as your home phone or hotel room phone.

So what has unified communications done for you? It’s allowed your customers to reach you where ever you are and on whatever device you’re using.

More importantly, however, this Single Number Reach/Twinning allows calls to be handed off between your desk phone and mobile phone. A mobile employee who takes a call to his DDI number on his mobile just as he’s returning to the office no longer has to continue the call and incur mobile call charges or tell the customer he’ll call them back; instead he can seamlessly hand the call back to his desk phone.

Taking this one step further, these mobility applications allow travelling employees to make local, national and even international

call or e-mail – all from your smart phone.

We’ve come to know this is as Presence – or if put another way it’s like having an MSN or Office Communicator on your mobile phone.

Extend the theme of productivity a bit further and we come to collaboration, a term and technology for integrating voice, video conferencing (or indeed high definition TelePresence) and document sharing into one application. Many organisations are already realising the benefits of removing geographical constraints from employee

Many organisations are already realising the benefits of removing geographical constraints from employee project team working in terms of reduced travel time, costs plus shortening lead times and being able to respond to customer needs in a more timely fashion business call from their mobile phones at regular PSTN rates rather than the significantly more expensive mobile call charges.

So how is this done you may ask? By the use of a client application on the smart phone that uses the data service to tell your office unified communications system to call your mobile phone, the number you want to reach and then conference the call together.

You’ve now made a call from your mobile without incurring mobile call charges.

So what has unified communications done for you? It’s significantly reduced your monthly mobile phone costs.

INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY So far we’ve seen some of the cost benefits that unified communications brings to the party but what about another important aspect of being a mobile employee – productivity whilst out of the office. It’s all well and good being able to make and receive business calls but that’s not much use without some of the functionality we take for granted sitting at our desk. For example being able to look up a colleague in the corporate directory and determine if they’re on the phone, in a meeting or away from their desk and then be able to reach them via the most appropriate means – chat (IMS), phone

project team working in terms of reduced travel time, costs plus shortening lead times and being able to respond to customer needs in a more timely fashion.

The latest generation of smart phone unified communications clients about to hit the market enables a travelling employee to initiate a web collaboration session such as WebEx with document sharing and video from their mobile phone via drag and drop. In fact a regular phone call on the smart phone can be escalated to a web collaboration session in a similar fashion.

So what has unified communications done for you? It’s made your employees more productive when out of the office and improved your organisation’s ability to respond to customers’ needs in a more timely fashion.

So while on the face of it unified communications may seem to be an expense in these times of economic belt tightening, when you dig a bit deeper below the surface there are clear benefits to be had in terms of cost control, increased productivity and employee efficiency for any organisation be it commercial, healthcare or government. In fact wasn’t it a certain Mr. Cameron who had cost savings through improved efficiency as one of his key messages just recently?

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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ELECTRONIC COUNTING

A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE FOR ELECTRONIC COUNTING Many councils have successfully implemented e-counting for both statutory and nonstatutory elections. However, certain issues must be addressed before a national roll-out can be sanctioned, writes Sonya Anderson, head of elections, DRS Data Serices BRITAIN’S LATEST GENERAL ELECTION was the most controversial in decades, not least since it exposed the widening cracks in our outdated electoral system. The new coalition government has of course promised a referendum on the issue of electoral reform.

Putting to one side the enormous voter education programme needed to ensure the electorate is able to make an informed choice in such a referendum, it’s clear that considerable changes must be made to the mechanisms of voting and counting before proposals such as the Alternative Vote (AV) could possibly work.

Although returning officers and electoral administrators have, over the past decade, absorbed many changes to electoral legislation, particularly in the field of postal voting, the methodology that surrounds polling day itself has remained, essentially, unchanged for 100 years. A system that is struggling to cope with current practices would surely collapse if voters were to be given multiple options on their ballot papers in an AV or Single Transferrable Vote (STV) system.

CHANGING THE SYSTEM It’s essential that the new government sets in place an immediate review of the way in which returning officers will manage a significant change to the voting system. Alongside any front-end method of casting votes must be an efficient back-end administration process.

Anyone who saw the footage of the army of individuals employed to herd ballot boxes in Sunderland on 6 May will start to get a feel for the level of pressure that returning officers are under, with candidates, agents, media and voters all pushing for a quick result. Rightly or wrongly, speed is a priority.

Yet it was more than 18 hours before some constituencies declared their results. In the Republic of Ireland, where preferential voting is the norm, experienced administrators are known to have been re-counting ballot papers two or three days after the close of the polls.

Against such a backdrop, the obvious solution would appear to be electronic counting. The application of this technology at national level would bring a number of benefits, not least speed. The hundreds of counting staff who are currently required to work through the night would be significantly reduced. Where a hall full of 150 staff might be recruited to count by hand, just 30 would be needed to operate e-counting equipment. The efficiency savings are not hard to imagine.

These advantages have been evidenced by

the successful implementation of e-counting in many statutory and non-statutory elections both here in the UK and around the world. However, questions have been raised over the accuracy, transparency and security of e-counting and these concerns must be met head on before a national roll-out can be sanctioned.

In addressing these issues, it’s important to emphasise that the use of e-counting ensures that every ballot paper is handled in an identical manner and the risk of human error is removed. In the vast majority of cases, where the voter’s intent is clear, the ballot paper is read and counted automatically. If there is any doubt over the voter’s intent, the ballot paper is automatically flagged and passed to the returning officer and their staff for review. This process allows for experienced administrators to deal with anomalies, while the technology makes very fast work of the majority of clear ballot papers.

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AND THEIR WISH TO HARNESS THE TECHNOLOGY The way in which individual local authorities harness technology differs greatly, but in the world of e-counting there are some notable authorities that are paving the way in modernising election administration.

Indeed, e-counting can no longer be classed as a new or emerging technology, with many local authorities now experts in this field.

Westminster City Council, along with all other London boroughs, played a critical role in the administration of the inaugural London Mayor and Assembly Election in 2000. This was the first statutory election in the UK to use e-counting on any significant scale.

Looking forward to its full council elections in 2002, Westminster began to consider the use of e-counting for its own purposes. Operating under the Electoral Modernisation pilots programme, Westminster chose e-counting to deliver some significant objectives, including a significantly reduced team of staff and the faster delivery of results. The project required the counting of around 36,500 ballot papers for 20 individual multi-seat wards, yet results were delivered in around two-and-a-half hours.

When facing these elections again in 2006, Westminster City Council once more turned to e-counting – with full political support from across the authority. Again, Westminster City Council realised many benefits including allowing experienced staff to adjudicate doubtful ballot papers, while the e-counting technology took care of the ballot papers where the voter’s intent was clear. On this occasion the returning officer’s staff also manned and operated the scanning equipment.

In the interim period, Westminster was able to build on its experience and trial new workflows and technology during two further Greater London Authority elections in 2004 and 2008.

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ONLINE INFORMATION 2010 Keeping you ahead of the digital revolution Online Information is the event that takes you to the heart of the digital revolution, providing an annual meeting place for the global information and information management industry.

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ELECTRONIC COUNTING

In the run-up to the 2010 election, elected members of Westminster City Council expressed a desire to continue their use of electronic counting. However, in view of the likelihood of combined general and local elections, central government determined there would be no electoral pilots and Westminster was denied the use of e-counting. So, after ten years of electronic counting, Westminster had to plan, staff and train for a manual count – with many of their core team members never having experienced a manual count in their time with the authority.

As such, a great opportunity was missed. To have had a combined electronic count would have saved considerably on count staff resources whilst resulting in much speedier results.

ABOUT DRS DRS is a global leader in the field of election management, with extensive experience of working with local authorities, national governments, educational establishments, international election stakeholders and public and private sector organisations.

It is DRS’ aim to help reduce the administrative burden of political elections and non-statutory elections, whilst ensuring the security, integrity and accuracy of the results.

From capturing voter registration details through to processing complex combined elections, DRS has the experience to deliver large-scale elections worldwide.

As the only UK designer and manufacturer of electronic counting systems, DRS election technologies have proven to bring benefits of speed, accuracy and transparency to the election process, whilst making significant reductions to the staff needed to manually count complex elections.

Key features of DRS’ fast, efficient and accurate electronic counting solution include: • assurance that the correct number of ballot papers are entered into the count • the guarantee that each paper is

counted, but counted only once • electronically recording votes where the voter’s intent is clear • selecting and forwarding images of ballot papers where the voter’s intent is not clear to election officials for adjudication • higher security measures through audit trails and access controls.

To understand and meet the changing demands of an electorate, it is also becoming increasingly important to offer voters more than one channel by which to cast their vote. DRS offers a secure, multichannel electronic voting solution. This solution enables organisations to conduct elections, referendums and consultations over the internet, via Interactive Voice Response (IVR), SMS text and through DRE (Direct Recording Electronic Equipment) technology, like touch-screen kiosks.

The DRS electronic voting solution enables voters to register securely and then vote using any method that is convenient for them: online, by telephone or at a kiosk. By offering alternative ways to vote, an organisation can provide greater accessibility and convenience than the more traditional method of paper-only elections.

A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE Glasgow City Council is another authority that has taken hold of the technology and run with it. In 2005, the Scottish Government announced its decision to procure, centrally, an e-counting system for the combined Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections to take place in 2007. From day one, Glasgow City Council insisted on full ownership of the project, involving staff from all areas of the authority including election administration, project management, legal and technical.

Following the delivery of a hugely successful count in 2007, Glasgow made a firm commitment to build on its experience. Once again, here was an authority that wanted to move forward and not backwards. The council was determined to retain and further develop staff skills in order to reduce reliance on the supplier of the technology and deliver a locally-driven project. Since then, Glasgow has undertaken no less than four separate e-counting projects, underlining that this is hardly technology in its infancy.

MOVING THE STRATEGY FORWARD Electoral modernisation pilot projects here in the UK have made some progress towards harnessing the capabilities of e-counting technologies. They have begun to establish an interest by voters and an appetite by electoral administrators to progress the introduction and safe use of these technologies. However, the Electoral Commission has been clear in its recommendations – the introduction of this technology should be within the framework of a defined government strategy for electoral modernisation. Suppliers of the technology welcome the use of accreditation and standards against which all technical solutions can be assured, giving the returning officers the desired consistency. Surely now is the time for the government to address this on a wider scale.

With a clear strategy in place and realistic timescales, the introduction of e-counting technologies can be managed to ensure security, consistency and accuracy – all of which will be transparent to all stakeholders in the electoral process.

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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CONTACT CENTRES

HELPING YOU ACHIEVE UNPARALLELED RESULTS Call Centre & Customer Management Expo 2010, taking place 21-22 September, is the most comprehensive learning experience of the year AS THE COALITION GOVERNMENT pledges £6bn in spending cuts and over 600,000 job cuts planned within the next two years, everyone is feeling the pinch.

Continuous worries within the public sector about job security and the future have led to an uneasy feeling across all industries, with organisations looking for ways to maintain operational efficiency whilst performing the required cuts in spending. At this time of economic struggle, with the country facing its worst cuts yet and with the official line being “make-do and mend”, Call Centre & Customer Management Expo 2010 is all about showcasing how customer service excellence is the best strategy for success, and how taking pride in being at the

prestigious Call Centre Conference, which runs alongside the exhibition, offers highlevel, strategic sessions, which showcase learning experiences to inspire the very best ideas and forward-thinking conversations. The sessions also provide the latest information on how your organisations can thrive in the depression, and drive through the current climate to come out in a stronger position.

2010 SHOW FEATURES Over 200 suppliers of the latest customer contact and customer management solutions will showcase their services and products.

Meet leading industry suppliers offering an array of solutions such as speech recognition, automated call distribution, computer telephony

The old maxim ‘good customer service saves money’ has never been more relevant than it is today in the public sector. Events such as Call Centre & Customer Management Expo provide a chance to share ideas and develop new ways of delivering more with less – Simon Pollock, head of Customer Services, Surrey County Council forefront of the contact centre industry, will keep you ahead of the game.

Call Centre & Customer Management Expo 2010 offers ideas for low-cost technology implementations and people practices that can help reduce cost, while keeping citizen satisfaction. Offering a blend of integrated customer products and services, cutting-edge education programmes and unique networking opportunities, you can’t afford to miss this year’s event.

Searching for a solution to a problem can take valuable time and staff away from the office, so if you have a problem that needs solving, an issue that needs addressing or a thirst for knowledge, Hall 9 at the Birmingham NEC is the place to be from 21-22 September.

Central government departments especially, will be starting to look for help in cutting back, whilst facing the challenges of maintaining their high levels of customer service and productivity while reducing costs. The

integration, interactive voice response and CRM software. Confirmed 2010 exhibitors include: SAP, RightNow Technologies, IBM, Genesys, New Voice Media, NICE CTI Systems UK Ltd, Sage, Newvoicemedia, ProtoCall One, Interactive Intelligence and many more.

Discuss anything from call centre operational efficiency to CRM upgrades in the Consultancy Clinic located on the showfloor.

If you need advice to solve your business challenges, visit one of the leading industry consultancies for a drop-in private session.

This year’s event will feature the biggest ever free educational programme. Following on from the success of last year, The Keynote Theatre, sponsored by Autonomy, will be showcasing six thought-leading speakers who will provide valuable insights and influential thinking – all free to visitors. Already confirmed on day one Don Peppers, founding partner of Rogers & Peppers, discusses ‘Press 1 to get lost: improving the contact centre customer

experience’ followed on day two by Brad Cleveland, former president and CEO of ICMI, who considers ‘How every organisation must evolve to serve today’s always-on customers’.

Brand new to 2010 are the three interactive peer to peer learning and networking workshops, which are packed with invaluable information. On day one Rufus Grig from Callmedia will give his insight on making ‘New technology work for you and your customers’ followed by Peter Coates who will analyse ‘The future of public sector contact’. Finally, on day two Paul Weald and Mike Havard from ProtoCall One will explore ‘How social media is changing the game for contact centres’.

CALL CENTRE FOCUS CONFERENCE This year’s prestigious paid-for Call Centre Focus Conference, running alongside the exhibition, provides the very latest information and advice on how your business can strive to remain buoyant and recoup the desired competitive edge. With a choice of 24 insightful sessions, delegates will be given the opportunity to gain in-depth solutions, gleaning knowledge and advice from industry specialists. Sponsored

by Vodafone and IBM, speakers include Neira Jones, head of Payment Securities, Barclaycard; Nick Lane, director of Strategy and Planning, Orange; Sarah Sargaent, head of CS People Programme, O2; and Lynda Campbell, general manger, British Gas. For more information on the quality educational content and big brand case studies as well as the special offers – single sessions just £69 – go to www.ccfconference.com.

OTHER EVENT HIGHLIGHTS With staff morale dwindling in the current economic climate, look to raise your workforce’s spirit by taking a stroll up the Incentive Avenue. Dedicated to helping find solutions to inspire and encourage the team, companies including Grass Roots, IM Creative, Sodexo, Team Spirit, Wellkom, Department of Health, Corporate Services, Phoenix Partners and SVM Europe, will be on hand to talk about rewarding and thanking employees.

If you are looking to develop your team in key areas, the Learning and Development Zone is the place to meet companies such as Bray Leino, Kaplan Learning, JHP Training, DPG PLC, ISV Group, and Bridge Training and Events – all specialists in the field of

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

CALL CENTRES

customer service and contact centre training.

Skills training and vocational qualifications, in-house and outside workshops, accredited in-company courses including NVQs, and BTECs certificate programmes can all be found here.

Make valuable industry contacts and swap ideas and strategies in the informal environment of the Networking Bar, sponsored

by RightNow Technologies, while taking a break from the showfloor for lunch or a drink.

Call Centre & Customer Management Expo showcases not only improvements that can be made within your call centre but also brings together key individuals that will help you achieve unparalleled results. Join your industry peers to acquire invaluable business knowledge and share new ideas and best practice, and make a positive impact on your organisation. Reserve your place at the industry event of the year.

What’s more, if your call centre interacts with a field service department, bring your colleagues along to the co-located Service Management Expo, taking place next door in Hall 10. Your Call Centre & Customer Management Expo badge guarantees you free entry so no need to register twice.

SIX INSPIRATIONAL KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Delivered by the most motivational speakers, the six inspiring keynotes are available to all visitors. They will contain a mix of revolutionary customer management techniques and cutting-edge thinking addressing the most topical issues the industry is facing today.

On Tuesday 21 Sept at 10.45-11.30 Don Peppers, founding partner of Peppers & Rogers Group will take the session called ‘Press ‘1’ to Get Lost: Improving the Contact Centre Customer Experience.’ Recognised for well over a decade as one of the leading authorities on customer-focused relationship management strategies, an acclaimed author and a founding partner of Peppers & Rogers Group, Don

Peppers will share his knowledge and expertise on why a majority of consumers are deeply dissatisfied with their call-centre experiences and how research shows they think call-centre technology is used principally to cut costs, even when that means diminished service.

On Wednesday 22 September at 10.45-11.30 Brad Cleveland, former president and CEO at ICMI will look at how every organisation must evolve to serve today’s always-on customers.

In this not-to-miss keynote, author and consultant Brad Cleveland – who has had a front row seat in his work with organisations across the globe – will define the deep changes taking place, and the steps you need to take now to prepare your organisation, your team and yourself to survive and thrive in the months and years ahead. He will discuss the confluence of economic pressures, cultural developments, and how the rapid rise of social media has fuelled fundamental changes that are leaving no organisation untouched.

New for 2010 will be three interactive peer to peer learning and networking workshops.

Packed with invaluable information, these workshops provide a unique insight into key issues, changing demands and challenges with the call centre industry.

On Tuesday 21 Sept at 11.45-13:15 Rufus Grigs, managing director at Callmedia will present a session entitled ‘Don’t believe the hype – making new technology work for you and your customers.’

As an experienced contact centre technology specialist within the call centre industry, Rufus will share expertise on the following topics; speech analytics, speech self service, unified communications in the contact centre, multisite contact centre virtualisation, IP telephony in the contact centre, SIP trunking, PCI compliance solutions, integrated workforce optimisation, the unified agent desktop, supporting your web presence through multi-channel, and outbound dialling –

meeting the latest Ofcom challenge.

At 13:00-14:30 there will be a session on ‘The future of public sector contact – The view from the Local Government Contact Council.’

It will be chaired by Peter Coates, Sunderland City Council & chair of the Local Government Contact Council who will be joined by Paul Conneely, advisor, Local Government Improvement and Development (formerly the IDeA); Vicky Sargent, press officer & marketing consultant, Socitm; and Simon Pollock, head of Customer Services, Surrey County Council.

Having celebrated 20 years of working in local government with Sunderland City Council this year, Peter has experienced developing, implementing, and managing information systems in many service areas. Together with Paul, Vicky and Simon, Peter will analyse what LGCC is, what trends the IDeA are noticing, web contact and its future and finally channel shift and channel strategies.

SOCIAL MEDIA On Wednesday 22 Sept at 11.45-13:15 Paul Weald, strategy director at ProtoCall One and Mike Havard, advisor to the Board at ProtoCall One, will host a session on ‘The impact of social media on the contact centre – opportunity or risk?’

Having worked in the contact centre industry since the early 90s and as a consultant for the past 12 years, with a strong focus on helping clients to achieve excellence, Paul will explore how social media is the new and emerging concept that the contact centre industry quickly needs to come to terms with. It offers new challenges that will require innovative thinking to resolve.

This workshop is designed to be a catalyst for contact centre leaders to take action.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: www.callcentre-expo.com

Jabra to showcase its range of headsets at Call Centre Expo ABRA IS DELIGHTED to be exhibiting at this year’s Call Centre Expo, where its range of professional call centre headsets will be showcased.

Jabra manufactures a portfolio of corded and wireless headsets specifically for the call centre environment, that incorporate the latest innovations in sound quality, noisecancellation, design and manufacturing.

Supporting these essential requirements, Jabra also provides headsets that are compatible with the leading unified communications vendor technology, for ease of transition to a VoIP solution now or in the future.

The Jabra headsets that will be showcased on the Jabra stand during CC Expo are:

J

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perfect for the busy call centre agent as it’s durable for everyday use and has large ear cushions for all-day comfort 3. Jabra PRO™ 9460 Duo – this multiuse wireless binaural headset works with both deskphone and softphone to ensure no call is ever missed. The Duo headset is ideal for a busy open plan office environments Come and visit us on stand F9 to find out more about how Jabra headsets can benefit your agents and supervisors.

1. Jabra BIZ™ 2400 Series – with better audio, better build and better comfort this superior corded headset range is ideal for the telephone intensive user 2. Jabra GN2000 corded headset is

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01784 220140 E-mail: ukpartner@gn.com Web: www.jabra.co.uk

Performance Support - Assess, Train and Support Your Users Use Global Help to provide context sensi!ve help based on what the user needs to know when they need to know it, in ANY applica!on, browser or service process.

Use the Live Content Studio’s friendly user interface to create Interac!ve Training and Support materials to assist and instruct users whilst working in the live applica!on.

Your users become more produc!ve; learn and complete the task at the same !me!

Client Feedback : “Global Help is very intui!ve, quick and simple.”

The trainers only had a week to create the training assistance for the case management system, but were able to meet their deadline using Global Help on Demand which u!lises a mix of training materials and messages to help users. “So far, we have had no support calls at all rela!ng to the changes implemented.”

User feedback is posi!ve as well: “They think it’s fantas!c and very clever!”

Contact us for a free evalua!on copy or to schedule a demo. +44 (0)1823 661669 - sales@tutorpro.com - www.tutorpro.com

LESS IS MORE Fewer product returns means happier and more productive agents!

In a recent product quality analysis 100,000 Jabra BIZ™ 2400 headsets shipped yielded a product defective rate of 0.1%!

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With results like this, why should your agents settle for anything less! They want and deserve the very best and with the Jabra BIZ™ 2400 they’ll get outstanding audio, comfort, design, and value… and now supreme quality too! It is no wonder that the Jabra BIZ™ 2400 is … 10 X BETTER Learn more at www.jabra.co.uk or call 01784 220140 for more information.

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Assess, train and support your users in any live application with the Performance Support Suite ONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T LET THE QUALITY of your service and support suffer at the hands of budget constraints â&#x20AC;&#x201C; use our suite of applications to meet your training needs.

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With Global Help on Demand you can embed context-sensitive help based on what the user needs to know when they need to know it. You can drastically reduce your help desk calls and reduce the learning curve on new applications, as well as promote business processes and best practices based on the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role. â&#x20AC;˘ Creative ways to cost-effectively enhance service delivery and customer satisfaction. â&#x20AC;˘ Implement call elimination, call deflection and cost-per-incident reduction. â&#x20AC;˘ Encourage a culture of self service problem resolution.

The Live Content Studio is a revolutionary product that allows you to create step by step instructions to assist and support your users in any live application. You can also create assessments to test your usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; capabilities whilst they work at their desktops in the live application, browser or service process.

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Contact centre solutions Helping government from CallScripter™ to serve the citizen ELIVERING CONTACT centre solutions for a decade, CallScripter™ is the most advanced and efficient scripting tool in the marketplace today.

Launching the latest best of breed scripting release (CallScripter™ 4.5) at this year’s Call Centre Expo, the software solutions provider is confident that this version is the strongest yet, with multiple new capabilities including: a refresh of the Avaya Proactive Contact dialler integration, an integration of the SQL Server Reporting Services and an international spell checker, to provide fully multi-lingual scripts of high quality and accuracy.

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CallScripter™ is already the solution of choice for many public sector organisations.

Government cut-backs and the on-going recession have increased the need for the public sector to streamline processes and reduce costs. With this in mind, CallScripter™ is determined to continue to be one of the most effective and affordable providers, whilst never compromising on quality of service.

CallScripter™ will be previewing the new software with live, interactive demos at Call Centre Expo 2010, on Stand D12.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 0800 0887470 Fax: 01473 321801 E-mail: sales@callscripter.com Web: www.callscripter.com/cce

EC’S PROVEN reputation as an established provider of quality, reliable and innovative solutions has helped make us one of the world’s most successful telecommunications solutions suppliers to the government sector.

Our team of experts work in partnership with government institutions to understand the specific challenges they face and the communications requirements they must satisfy. The intuitive design means that civil servants require little or no training, and the communications between staff and with citizens will be instantly improved. This means a high ROI from day one.

NEC can help government offices provide a single point

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of contact for handling all enquiries. Intelligent call routing can enable civil servants to provide a personalised response – 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Employees can instantly find the expert on any issue by having access to an overview of the office, improving first call resolution and making the whole team more productive. Management tools can help senior staff assess the performance of the team, and ensure that excellent standards of service are met.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 0115 9695700 Fax: 0115 9315970 E-mail: sales@neci.co.uk Web: www.neci.co.uk

Business Systems (UK) Ltd and OPEX Hosting Inspiring solutions from Verridian Plc ERRIDIAN PLC was formed in 1991 originally as a recruitment consultancy.

It has expanded rapidly since and now comprises of three strategic business units: training, marketing and recruitment. The company’s head office is based in Bristol, but it has over 70 employees located around the country and operates globally.

Verridian plc is a professional services company that provides training, marketing and recruitment solutions, and works with client companies to realise their potential.

The company aims to develop and deliver its portfolio of products and services, and continue to be the preferred supplier of training, marketing and recruitment services to market leading companies around the world; providing premium bespoke solutions that are simple to implement

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and manage and show tangible returns on investment for its client companies. We pledge to leave clients with effective business structures and clarity of purpose.

In doing so the company provides opportunities for its employees, clients and shareholders to develop and achieve their own objectives.

USINESS SYSTEMS (UK) LTD specialises in voice and speech technology solutions and today ranks as the UK’s most experienced independent provider with expertise covering: systems design, implementation, and ongoing service delivery and support. The solution range includes call recording, quality monitoring, voice analytics and workforce management. Business Systems delivers independent advice and ‘open’ systems design using on-premise equipment.

Sister company OPEX Hosting provides hosted technology for home worker and mobile environments offering on-demand business applications to deliver services via the web or telephony network. The hosted pay-as-you-go suite includes campaign management, customer satisfaction survey, dashboards, dialler, mobile call

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recording, realtime displays and self-service IVR. Together, Business Systems’ and OPEX Hosting’s solutions are used to improve productivity, provide business continuity, backup call centre resources when demand is excessive, and provide multi-site and home-worker connectivity.

Customers include police, fire, ambulance, the NHS, healthcare providers, transport organisations and local government. To discover how Business Systems and OPEX Hosting can assist you please e-mail sales@businesssystemsuk. com or call 0800 458 2988.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 0800 4582988 Fax: 020 83268400 E-mail: sales@ businesssystemsuk.com Web: www.business systemsuk.co.uk www.opexhosting.co.uk

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01275 814388 E-mail: info@verridian.co.uk Web: www.verridian.co.uk

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A New Era in Security and Safety Management Demonstrating security and safety technology · Surveillance & CCTV · Access Control, Time & Attendance · Biometric & Video Analytics · Intruder Detection & Alarms · Fire Detection & Evacuation · Integrated Safety Solutions · Audio, Intercom & Messaging · Transmission & Comms Systems · Building Management Systems

Security – who’s job is it anyway?

Your security requirements traditionally fall into 4 areas Physical Security, CCTV, Access Control, and Intruder Alarms most of which have either migrated from analogue to digital technology, or are in the process of doing so. Digital systems are increasingly being run over networks using IP (internet protocol). The benefits are self-evident with further integration of audio, intercom and messaging, fire and evacuation, asset management and tracking and transmission and comms technologies.

But the world is changing, and IT and Network professionals are becoming more involved, with growing responsibility for both Physical and Logical security within an organisation, particularly with intelligent building management and facilities solutions also beginning to converge.

This shift will change the way we protect and manage all of our organisations, properties and people in future and will introduce both opportunities and challenges for those responsible for security and safety.

It's time to embrace and investigate this migration, and to identify how best they can be exploited.

In a recent survey of IT, ICT and Network managers, 80% of respondents agreed that physical security was increasingly becoming part of their remit and that engaging with security and safety professionals was key.

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Preparing for the Future Helping to increase the awareness and acceptance of new IP based applications across many market areas, the IIPSEC exhibition and conference now located at the IP EXPO will ensure that you gain from the synergies between the various technologies on display and will provide a firm basis upon which Stake-Holders, Security and Safety Professionals and IT and Network Technologists can discover the opportunities that lie within mutually accessible solutions.

Where to learn more IIPSEC at the IP EXPO will demonstrate real life solutions and allow security specialists to engage with IT and network professionals for the first time. The combination of the product showcase, technical and practical seminars and workshops and presentations tailored specifically to your needs will result in an informative and enlightening participation.

IIPSEC has always concentrated on the application of technology within the Security, Life Safety and BMS environments, whereas the IP EXPO is dedicated to the underlying technology itself, covering Cloud computing, Virtualisation, Infrastructure and Wireless and Storage solutions. This is a unique combination of events where Security, Safety, IT and Network Professionals can mingle and understand the commercial and practical possibilities available when working together to increase security and safety.

Register FREE – www.iipseconline.com Image courtesy of NICE systems

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DATA MOBILISATION

DEMONSTRATING GOOD SOLUTIONS Airpoint explores whether police forces are getting the best value from their data mobilisation suppliers

Some forces have very clear ideas about what they want from a project, with some exemplar forces having business analysts working for 12-18 months prior to tender to develop a comprehensive mobilisation strategy – achieving successful implementations as a result AMONGST SOME IT SUPPLIERS there appears to be the belief that by simply delivering off-the-shelf software to a police force, their role in the project is complete. This belies the fact that a solution that works for one force may not automatically work for another.

Aside from the multitude of back-end systems in use, individual forces often use different workflows and business processes from their peers to achieve the same goals.

A supplier, then, has to fully engage with the force during its requirements gathering phases to understand this. On the other hand, some forces have very clear ideas about what they want from a project, with some exemplar forces having business analysts working for 12-18 months prior to tender to develop a comprehensive mobilisation strategy – achieving successful implementations as a result. Some are willing to share this research, which can be an invaluable starting point for those forces without the business analyst resources.

It also follows that if there have been

successful data mobilisation projects, there must be suppliers on the market with the requisite experience of working on them.

A force new to data mobilisation – or considering a change following a failed project – must engage with this type of supplier.

FUNDING AVAILABLE The burden of implementing data mobilisation projects in the last three years has been considerably eased by the provision of £80 million in funding from the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA). Forces can also call upon the NPIA’s growing experience in data mobilisation, where it can: monitor and support the development of business cases; provide expertise on solution design, development and deployment; and act as a critical friend to the force throughout the delivery of the solution.

Some three years on from the start of this funding stream, its approach is to identify potential suppliers to key areas of policing, seek out champion products (as well as

providing challenger products) and enable cost effective implementation of approved and where possible, standardised solutions such as MIDAS across forces. All this is in the name of efficiency and cost control.

We should not underestimate the benefits to policing of the NPIA’s funding. Some of these benefits are not realised directly through the arrival of the NPIA’s cheque. The injection of capital from the centre provided forces with cash to start mobile data projects, but at the same time it stimulated suppliers to develop and improve their solutions. Market forces working for the benefit of policing – who’d have thought it? However, as we all know only too well, markets can change. Firstly, the central stimulus has ended. Secondly, the economic climate has completely changed the commercial considerations around data mobilisation. Not only is the NPIA funding gone, but forces themselves are now under pressure to cut capital spending as well as revenue costs.

So what is the future for data mobilisation?

THE NEED FOR EFFICIENCY The same drivers for mobilising data still exist in the new climate, but the need for efficiency and cost savings are even more critical now.

What has changed is the need for forces to squeeze every pound of value out of their existing, and now largely self-funded, projects.

This can manifest itself in a number of ways: the re-negotiation of existing contracts on renewal; change of supplier at (or before) renewal; or, more radically, the re-negotiation of an existing contract. For those suppliers unwilling to contemplate such a radical idea, beware the end of that contract.

Many organisations are reluctant to change supplier particularly as such a solution may involve immediate capital investment. This resistance is understandable. Three years after a major capital investment, whether NPIA funded or not, investing in another supplier so soon is perceived to reflect poorly on the original decision maker. It appears that a change of device type or data mobilisation supplier is seen as an admission of failure, irrespective of the success of the project.

It is this inertia that must be overcome if improved return on investment (ROI) is to be achieved. Perhaps this is where the NPIA could step in, setting minimum criteria for success.

If these are not achieved the aforementioned inertia is effectively removed as the decision making is now based upon objective criteria from the NPIA, giving the project board the flexibility to change their supplier or device because it is the right thing to do.

ENGAGING WITH FORCES So how should the supplier, with a demonstrably good product, respond to the current climate? The simple answer to this is that having a demonstrably good product is not enough. If we pull together the strands

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DATA MOBILISATION

of this discussion so far: a requirement for suppliers to engage with forces individually to understand force specific requirements; the end of central stimulus funding; forces relying on shrinking budgets to provide the same level of visibility and effectiveness in their community; and a requirement to demonstrate high levels of ROI through the life-cycle of the product. We’ve already said that the supplier cannot turn up with an offthe-shelf solution, install and walk away.

The most important thing for the supplier to realise is that it must engage the force in a proper relationship. There have been lots of wasted words about partnerships in the past, with lip service paid to this type of business relationship because it is the current buzz word, or for reasons of political correctness it is seen as the right thing to do. Today, with the economic climate the way it is, a meaningful partnership with a force is becoming a matter of necessity – not only to ensure that the client force is achieving its financial and policing objectives, but to ensure the continuation of the wider ranging data mobilisation project as a whole. A force will only achieve its objectives if the usage statistics for the solution it has deployed are at acceptable levels. The supplier is ultimately responsible for helping the force achieve these levels. Officers will only use a product that is intuitive and makes their job easier. Even the technophobes out there will be confounded by a product that makes their life easier – and this can easily be achieved by adapting demonstrably good products to fit the needs of individual forces.

MAKING THE DECISION IT departments, whilst responsible for the implementation of the system, should not be the ones making the buying decision.

Operational staff and end-users should be driving the requirements gathering workshops – events the supplier should also attend. The outcomes from these workshops then need to be documented, and interpreted by suppliers to produce prototypes of the solution, giving operational officers an opportunity to feedback on the usability of the solution. The feedback should then be used by the supplier to refine its product and present back a refined prototype.

There may be several iterations of this process, but if the force – and the supplier – is to achieve the buy-in of users, users need to be heavily involved in the development process. In terms of the partnership relationship at this stage, both sides need to be flexible, particularly where a fixed price for implementation has been agreed. A price will be quoted against a set of functional requirements, and the supplier needs to honour the development of the prototype to include all of these requirements. If the requirements change, the force has to accept that any additional functionality must be paid for – which brings us back to ensuring the initial requirements

gathering is detailed, accurate and complete.

Following completion of the prototype and implementation to the live environment, responsibility for the success of the solution is shared between both partners. This should include the financial risks as well as the functional ones. A supplier will step in and ensure the agreed functionality works as described – that’s what the warranty is for.

However, if the project fails to achieve the targeted levels of usage expected, shouldn’t the financial incentives to the supplier reflect the performance of its product?

SUPPORTING ROLL-OUT By sharing objectives across the project – including the most important measure of all, end usage statistics – the supplier is incentivised to support the roll out (and training) model used. By setting up detailed analysis of usage statistics and identifying where weaknesses lie, the supplier can work with the force to identify additional training needs or functional changes and so increase usage. This benefits the force in that ROI is enhanced and the project objectives are more likely to be achieved – with the supplier being rewarded proportionately.

The third stage of the partnership comes

with the value for money offered in relation to support payments. The time has passed where a supplier can charge 15-20 per cent of the licence value and provide maybe a dozen days support all year. The supplier needs to take responsibility for the continued development of its product. Support needs to include significant numbers of development days, usability research, user groups, a defined development path for the product, and maybe additional training to continue to improve end-user ratings of the software.

There’s no doubt that this approach is going to erode the profit margins of the supplier, however, what it may just do is seal a partnership with a force whereby renewal of contracts is as good as guaranteed. If the client is suffering, a true partner is going to share in some of that pain in the short-term, for the benefit of the relationship in the longterm. With Sir Hugh Orde, President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, on 29 June 2010 warning of falling police numbers as a result of cuts, the significance of the wider data mobilisation project in cost saving is increasing. Now is the time for suppliers to take responsibility for their software and become partners in more than just name.

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Where Business Issues Meet Their IT Solutions

360°IT - 22-23 September 2010, London, UK 360°IT demonstrates how IT solutions can help to achieve key business objectives such as improving service, reducing cost, managing risk and gaining competitive advantage.

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EVENTS

WHERE BUSINESS ISSUES MEET THEIR IT SOLUTIONS The 360°IT event, 22-23 September, provides insight on how to get value from IT AS THE PUBLIC SECTOR FACES the challenge of providing value for money on restricted budgets, IT is an area that can make a significant impact. The 360°IT event, taking place at Earls Court on 22-23 September, is a fresh, new event that will deliver a holistic view of the solutions that support the entire IT infrastructure. A visit to 360°IT provides an essential road map of current and emerging technologies, including security, storage, network and communications, virtualisation, data centres, applications, enterprise 2.0, information management, cloud computing and SaaS, business continuity, and risk and compliance. With 100+ top IT providers from across the globe exhibiting, the event offers a comprehensive showcase of solutions, products and services.

VENDOR & END USER COLLABORATION High level strategic content, product demonstrations and technical workshops facilitate vendor and end-user collaboration, to create IT infrastructure that will enable government organisations to reduce cost and manage risk, ensuring they provide UK citizens with an improved level of service.

The Opening Address features Bill McCluggage, deputy government CIO and director of ICT Strategy & Policy, Office Of The Government CIO & SIRO, who will address ‘Operating In A New Public Sector ICT Landscape’. He will cover the simplification, standardisation and automation plans for public sector ICT. Join the CTO of the Department of Work & Pensions and the former CIO of Wachovia bank to discuss ‘Innovating with IT – Building

for The Future’. This session will provide a unique glimpse into strategies and processes, and how organisations build the right culture in which IT innovation will thrive and deliver.

As organisations face ever-increasing demands to drive down costs, leading them to consolidate within the IT infrastructure, hosted services can seem like an attractive alternative.

But asks Ms. Mette Ahorlu, consulting director, IDC European Services, ’Are Hosted Services the Way Forward?’ Answering this question are Mr. Myron Hrycyk, CIO, Severn Trent PLC, Mr. Mark Hall, director of IT, HMRC, Mr. Antony Hayes, head of IT vendor management, Royal Mail, and Mr. Ian Cohen, CIO, Jardine Lloyd Thompson.

Clive Longbottom, service director, Business Process Analysis, Quocirca Ltd will preside over and action to find out ‘Is IT A Strategic Weapon Or Survival Tool?’ With him are Mr. David Chan, director, Centre For Information Leadership, City University London, Mr. Nick Gaines, group information systems director, Volkswagen Group UK Ltd, Mr. Michael Warren, CTO, The London Metal Exchange and Mr. Marcus East, head of future media & technology, Comic Relief.

Join Mr. Martin Kristensson, IT emergency coordinator, The IT Emergency Preparedness and Response Branch Of The United Nations World Food Programme on the second day for the keynote address. This session will look at ‘IT Solutions For Relief Workers On The Frontline’.

Professor John Walker, visiting professor of science & technology, School Of Computing & Informatics, Nottingham Trent University will facilitate The Big Debate on Outsourcing vs. Cloud Computing. This panel will consist of senior management from innovative IT vendors who will discuss which approach

is best, outsourcing or cloud computing.

Nigel Stanley, practice leader at Bloor Research, will look at how an organisation’s security strategy is vital to the over-arching success of the IT infrastructure – and the business as a whole.

Joining Nigel will be Mr. John Harris, VP Application Services, Commercial IT, GlaxoSmithKline, Mr. Carl Froggett, senior VP, Citibank and Mr. John Colley, managing director EMEA, (ISC)2.

VENDOR DEVELOPMENTS The Discussion Den sessions offer a unique opportunity to hear about vendor developments, leading industry-expert analysis and from end-users directly – all in one interactive panel debate and a Q&A session.

Some of the topics that will be looked at are ‘Mobile Technology to Drive Customer Engagement’ and ‘The Impact of Cloud Computing on the Enterprise Infrastructure’.

Prof. John Walker, CAMM Steering Committee, will present an overview of the Common Assurance Maturity Model (CAMM); a global collaborative working group aimed at putting information risk onto the CEO’s agenda. Panelists taking part are Luke Forsyth, Computer Associates; Vladimir Jirasek, Nokia and Amanda Goodger, CESG. The interactive workshops provide an educational forum for discussions with peers. These workshops are designed with the sole purpose of ensuring visitors stay ahead of the game with the latest industry trends and developments.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: www.360itevent.com

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EVENTS

SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS ROLE IN THE WORKPLACE The World of Learning 2010 sheds light on what role social media networks have in learning activities EVENT INFORMATION Location: Hall 18, NEC, Birmingham Opening times: 10:00-17:00 Tuesday 28 September 10:00-16:00 Wednesday 29 September For more information, to book conference sessions or to pre-register to visit, please visit www.learnevents.com or call +44 (0)20 8394 5171

SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE NEW BUZZ communication channel in the consumer and business spaces and there’s much debate about its role in workplace learning and development (L&D) and, as some would argue, if it has any at all.

The World of Learning Conference & Exhibition 2010, the essential event for HR and L&D practitioners, will tackle the question of social media and learning at the NEC in Birmingham on Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 September, with a host of experts at both the conference and exhibition, including a dedicated Social Learning Zone.

“A decade ago the idea of having social learning programmes using networks like Facebook, Twitter and blogs in your business seemed quite incomprehensible and unrealistic,” comments Andrew Gee, senior project manager for the World of Learning.

“There have been such huge developments in technology, Web 2.0, Skype, and many others, and millions of people have rapidly accepted and adapted to social media in their everyday lives. So the role these networks play – and can play – in L&D is an issue that is very hotly debated within the industry. The World of Learning 2010 has therefore been developed to include several features and seminars that will concentrate on the theories, practices and case studies associated with social learning so industry members can be sure to gain some clarity on the topic to determine whether social

media has a role within their organisation and the cultural implications it can have.”

TACKLING THE ISSUES HEAD-ON The renowned World of Learning Conference will tackle the issue head-on during a lunchtime debate taking place on Tuesday. ‘To what extent does social media have a place in learning?’ will be discussed by experts Nick Shackleton-Jones, Online and Informal Learning at the BBC, Clive Shepherd, independent e-learning consultant and chair of the e-Learning Network, and Robin Hoyle, head of Learning at Infinity Learning, who will each share their opinion, insight and experiences with delegates, including why they may, or may not, believe social media has a place in L&D. “One of the key challenges circling this debate is what people actually mean when they say ‘social media’. People understand it to include networks like MySpace and Facebook, but these don’t actually provide a model we can work on for a number of reasons and it’s the word ‘social’ that gets in the way. I prefer something closer to ‘work’ and therefore is more functional,” says Robin, who believes interactive resources such as Amazon, Trip Advisor and eBay can also be defined as social media.

“If I want to buy an electronic item I go to Amazon and find reviews from other users, and I do the same with hotels on Trip Advisor.

That’s a kind of social media that uses Web 2.0 where users can read and write, and share what

they know on a transactional basis. I visit the site, get the information, make a decision and move on. I’m not engaging with the resource as a ‘friend’ but I am looking at it and using the organically generated information from other users to help make my decision. We describe it as ‘transactional networking’.”

Robin sees these transactional networking media as those that can be used in workplace learning, instead of otherwise suggesting someone becomes ‘friends’ with a course or programme.

“On Facebook there is an e-learning group and the last update was October 2008, so that speaks for itself,” states Robin.

The BBC’s Nick Shackleton-Jones presents a different perspective on the topic, as he believes peer-to-peer learning is already so prevalent in working environments, social media can be used to extend such knowledge exchange. It still however has its challenges.

“Social media extend people’s ability to learn from those around them. Since peerto-peer learning already accounts for around 85 per cent of the learning that takes place in organisations it’s only the technology that is new – not the underlying process.

“Organisations are uncomfortable with social media for three main reasons: it increases their permeability, it reduces the degree of centralised control and it intermingles (legitimate) knowledge sharing with (illegitimate) social activity,” states Nick.

KEY POINT Nick believes such uneasiness is largely misplaced because employees will continue to participate in social media activity with or without their employers’ consent, so it’s better to accept that fact and “be at the party rather than stay away and wonder what was said.” This is a key point to consider for public sector enterprises that typically have access

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EVENTS

to social networking sites blocked – what are staff saying online that management and HR should be aware of, and even a part of?

“Organisations should be developing their maturity and engagement in such spaces to minimise the risk of missing such opportunities with social media rather than adopting a head-in-the-sand position,” advises Nick, who oversees the BBC’s awardwinning blended learning solution, which utilises peer-to-peer support and engages line managers in a leadership programme.

“For L&D, social media presents another challenge – specifically to shift away from the conventional expert role and towards the honeybee role, using social media as a way to share best practice and cross-fertilise for creative ends.

“Organisations will also struggle to implement and justify social media, much as they did online learning. The attempt to ‘hijack’ social media for corporate purposes will, in most cases, fail. This is principally because they will try to apply outdated command and control thinking or evaluation approaches.”

Fellow World of Learning Conference panel member Clive Shepherd continues: “Social media can be used in public sector organisations for L&D initiatives, but the focus should not be on the media themselves but on the purposes you wish them to fulfil – the sharing of expertise, collaborations across normal organisational boundaries. Any organisation, whether public or private, can benefit this way.

“Within the organisation, the social media tools needed to allow employees to share expertise and collaborate will almost certainly not be the ones we use outside work. They are likely to come from Microsoft, IBM/

Lotus and others, and be integrated into office suites. That will almost certainly end any resistance from senior management.”

The debate on ‘To what extent does social media have a place in learning?’ will explore Robin, Nick and Clive’s opinions in-depth and address other key points including whether social media can go beyond simple knowledge-sharing, what the cultural issues surrounding using social media networks are, how can such perceptions and barriers be combated, and how internal and external collaboration can benefit from social networks.

The World of Learning Exhibition will also examine the world of social media in the context of L&D, giving both conference delegates and show visitors insight into the evolving medium.

With more than 100 UK and international exhibitors confirmed to appear at the premier event, it will feature a wide range of e-learning suppliers and practitioners who can shed light on the role of social media in learning.

The free seminars, which will be held throughout the two-day event, will also feature a presentation dedicated to discussing the issue. ‘Building relationships through online communities’, presented by Dan Martin, editor at BusinessZone.co.uk, will address how trainers, coaches and learning professionals can successfully use external and internet networks to nurture learning communities.

SOCIAL LEARNING ZONE Completely new to the World of Learning Exhibition, the Social Learning Zone will provide an interactive area dedicated to explaining and demonstrating the role of social media in L&D. “Most organisations recognise that only 10 per cent of learning within an organisation

happens through formal courses; 20 per cent is informal learning through friends and colleagues; and 70 per cent is on the job,” says international learning expert Steve Dineen, executive chairman at Fusion Universal, which is facilitating the Social Learning Zone.

“This is the 70.20.10 learning model and there are tools and approaches available to support each component.”

The Social Learning Zone will feature such tools and include information on the techniques available to accommodate each portion of learning. A series of two-minute tutorials on social media and learning, informal social learning office skills and new ways of learning and how they can be combined with traditional strategies will be running in the area.

Steve will also launch a new US product into the UK market, Jambok. A YouTube-like product for the corporate market, Jambok addresses the 20 per cent component of informal learning with a video upload and create function to share within an organisation via web browsers. Users are able to create and publish their own movie content, for example record presentations or step-by-step guides, and post it online, as well as learn from colleagues who have also shared their knowledge.

The Social Learning Zone will also host three presentations a day, which will explain what social learning is, where it fits in and what can be expected from the 70.20.10 learning model.

“Throughout history the only component we as learning professionals could affect was the 10 per cent of formal learning through the only tool available to us – the traditional learning course. Now, over the past few years, a new range of learning technologies from around the world has allowed us to design learning solutions for the whole 100 per cent. At this year’s World of Learning, The Social Learning Zone will be focusing on the 20 per cent of informal learning and the tools to assist with the 70 per cent practise on the job,” says Steve.

Other features at the event include the Experiential Learning Zone, Professional Development Zone, skills workshops, the International Zone, produce demonstrations, free seminars, The Trainer Base, Workplace Wellness Zone and Business and Networking Lounge.

DELEGATE BENEFITS Conference delegates will not only benefit from the knowledge and tips they’ll receive from attending the conference, but they will also receive a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Certificate of Attendance, free access to LM Matters’ 50 Lessons and Harvard ManageMentor and the facility to ask the speakers to address specific learning issues. Those who book and attend the two-day conference will also receive a free Toshiba HD camcorder.

Full details, including terms and conditions, are available at www.learnevents.com.

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PUBLIC SERVICES Cuts are coming Beyond 2010 will show you how to deliver more for less through digital innovations We will explore the central role of digital technologies in delivering efficiencies, transparency and reform that are key to driving economic growth and delivering better, more efficient and sustainable public services.

Get the tools, solutions and strategies you need at this crucial time at the Beyond 2010 International Conference Venue: The International Convention Centre, Birmingham Date: 20-21 October Hear from renowned thought leaders, public service trailblazers and technology specialists.

Charles Leadbeater Former No. 10 Advisor Richard Allan Director of Policy EU, Facebook John Suffolk HM Government CIO & SIRO Professor Nigel Shadbolt Government Transparency & Open Data Advisor

www.beyond-2010.com SPONSORED BY:

ORGANISED BY:

SUPPORTED BY:

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EVENTS

DELIVER MORE FOR LESS Beyond 2010 is a two-day conference focusing on the innovative use of digital technologies delegates the opportunity to learn from cities at the vanguard of digitally enabled living.

Organiser Digital Birmingham says the programme has been developed to help delegates understand the role technology can play in finding new and innovative ways of delivering services at lower cost; achieve transparency and innovation; increase citizen engagement and citizen led services in the spirit of the Big Society; drive service improvements through agile working, independent living and self service opportunities; and meet the government’s challenging carbon reduction targets.

Charles Leadbeater will discuss technology at beyond 2010

AGAINST A BACKDROP OF PUBLIC service reform, the need to deliver more for less has never been more acute. Add to that the coalition government’s pledge to develop greater community and citizen engagement and there is little doubt that public services are set for a radical rethink.

The good news is that digital technology is already enabling early adopters to deliver efficiencies, rethink the way services are provided and realise that by staying one step ahead of the latest digital developments they can lead the way in meeting the efficiency and reform agenda.

FIRST-HAND INSIGHTS Beyond 2010 is a two-day international conference that will demonstrate to delegates throughout the public sector how digital technology is already helping their peers at the coalface of public service delivery. It is the only event of its kind this year to give delegates first-hand insights from those public service professionals who are already tackling issues similar to theirs – with invaluable advice on how to overcome potential pitfalls.

The event is the brainchild of Birmingham City Council, which itself sits at the forefront of digital technology use in public service delivery. The council will showcase some of the results that its current IT-enabled change programmes are delivering, including the Customer First programme, which is simplifying and improving the interface between citizens and the council, and the Excellence in People Management (EPM) programme, transforming

the HR services and tools to maximise the value it achieves from its 54,000 strong workforce, serving the public and improving services.

LEADING THE WAY Stephen Hughes, chief executive at Birmingham City Council, says: “The Beyond 2010 programme brings together top level speakers, policy leads, service leads and the people leading the way in the public, private and third sectors for a series of workshops and seminars. This will help public service providers make well informed ‘future-proof’ investment decisions about the infrastructure of their towns and cities; recognise the value of the digitally enabled citizen in today’s society and rethink public service delivery to realise financial savings and improve effectiveness.”

Former Number 10 adviser Charles Leadbeater; government transparency and open data advisor Professor Nigel Shadbolt; and HM Government Chief Information Officer (CIO) John Suffolk are among the public sector thought leaders who will come together with private sector trailblazers including Facebook’s director of EU Policy Richard Allan; and UK Online managing director Helen Milner to debate, discuss and evaluate the role of technology in developing and delivering the public services of the future.

The second day of the conference will introduce a unique international element, with live links to partner cities Edmonton (Canada) and Seoul (South Korea). These cities will share the conference platform and offer a fascinating global perspective on the benefits of embracing smart solutions, giving

MUST-ATTEND EVENT Paul Tilsley, deputy leader of Birmingham City Council, believes Beyond 2010’s uniqueness lies in its ability to bring together representatives from all walks of public service life to learn from each other and from world leaders. As such, he feels the event is a must for anyone involved in public service design and delivery.

“The public sector is under immense pressure to realise savings without impacting on frontline services and this requires a radical rethink at all levels,” he says. “Digital technology has a key role to play in reshaping services to deliver long-term, sustainable solutions and Beyond 2010 gives people the opportunity to draw on experiences from all over the public sector, to share best practice and to find ways of meeting the inevitable challenges the next few years will bring.

“It is the only event of its kind this year to highlight the role of digital technology to deliver the efficiency and reform agenda, to tackle social exclusion and drive economic growth.”

Organised by Birmingham City Council and its city-wide Digital Birmingham initiative, Beyond 2010 takes place at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre as part of Hello Digital Week.

Hello Digital Week runs from 18-22 October and comprises a number of events celebrating the city’s and the region’s technological achievements against the best in the world.

FOR MORE INFORMATION To book your place, visit www.beyond-2010.com

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Full seminar schedule now available online To register for the show visit www.netcomsshow.co.uk To exhibit, call 01353 616100 or email sales@netcomsshow.co.uk Gold Sponsors

Media Partners

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EVENTS

NEW NAME, NEW DATE AND NEW VENUE The Netcoms Show – taking place at The Emirates Stadium, London, 13-14 October – will cover a variety of areas affecting the network infrastructure sector THE NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE EVENT 2010 will take place at The Emirates Stadium, London, 13-14 October.

The event deals with a wide variety of areas affecting the network infrastructure sector, including wireless networking, data centres, test equipment, VoIP, cable management, IP security, UPS, fibre optic cabling, enclosures and racks, and patching.

The Netcoms Show is the UK’s No.1 event for professionals involved in the design, specification, installation, integration and use of IT network infrastructure products and solutions. It provides a unique opportunity for those involved in this fast moving industry to come together under one roof in order

across teams. The seminar ‘Automating Physical Infrastructure Documentation’ with David Cuthbertson of AssetGen Limited look at practical methods of using automation techniques to reduce the numbers of spreadsheets and diagrams needed for managing critical infrastructure. Examples will cover power, space, connectivity and risk.

‘Network Video – Opportunities and Applications’ with Andrew Percival of Mayflex is a thought provoking session of the opportunities available to IP integrators, consultancies, network, security and facilities managers through the proliferation of network based video devices. Following an overview of the network video market, an alternative

The combined impacts of IP convergence, Power over Ethernet and the growth of wireless applications present significant opportunities for building owners and infrastructure designers to re-consider our future telecommunications solutions to share ideas and allows visitors to talk directly to manufacturers and distributors about their products and services.

Those exhibiting include R&M, Ortronics, Excel, Rittal, Cablelines Pronet, Cable Management Warehouse, CMS, Cooper B-Line, Netbit, CTTS, the ECA, Megger, Dymo, the FIA and many more.

SEMINAR PROGRAMME There will also be a series of free to attend seminars taking place throughout the two day event, which is hosted by Network Communications News (NCN) and The Telecommunications Infrastructure Advisory Board (TIA-B). The seminar sessions will cover a range of important industry topics, including optical fibre for 40/100GbE in the data centre, Power over Ethernet, cost reduced infrastructures, energy efficiency, convergence, alien crosstalk and network video. These sessions will provide a great opportunity for visitors to find out more about the subjects that matter to themselves and the industry.

Maintaining operational documentation of physical infrastructure such as cabling and power is often compromised by lack of standards, processes and understanding

view will be presented on how products can be used in a range of applications to protect assets, improve productivity, increase business revenues, reduce management costs and increase uptime. Finally some common myths relating to network video will be dismissed.

Power over Ethernet offers great opportunities for changing the way we work. However, the use of cabling designed to transmit signal data to deliver power raises a number of concerns which have only been partially addressed in the development of the standards. The presentation ‘Power over Ethermet – the hidden depths’ with David Stefanowicz of ECA-ITEC explains these concerns. In addition, this seminar highlights the risk of using non-PoEplus implementations of power over structured cabling.

The combined impacts of IP convergence, Power over Ethernet and the growth of wireless applications present significant opportunities for building owners and infrastructure designers to re-consider our future telecommunications solutions. These analyses may have consequences for many aspects of our industry - including both information technology and electrical cabling installers. Mike Daly (HSBC Group) of TIA-B will present ‘Cost-reduced infrastructures

EVENT INFORMATION Where: The Emirates Stadium, London When: 13-14 October Opening times: Wednesday 13th: 10:00am-5:30pm Thursday 14th: 10:00am-4:30pm – the future?’ seeking to highlight the possible developments and prepare the industry as the difficult decisions are made.

This year’s show is sponsored by Excel, The Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA), Rittal and Ortronics. Media partners for the event include Network Communications News (NCN), DCS, IP Focus, Network Computing, Networking+, ADF and Government Technology.

Visitors planning to attend the show are encouraged to pre-register at www.netcomsshow.co.uk in order to save time and fast track their entry.

The Netcoms Show event director, Mike Marsh, said: “Visitors who choose to preregister will receive a fast track entry badge in the post, saving them time at the door. They will also be kept up to date with all the latest news on the event including a full exhibitor line up and details on the seminar sessions.”

GETTING THERE Getting to Emirates Stadium is simple, London’s comprehensive public transport system will take you within a few minutes walk of the ground where clearly located pedestrian signs will help you find your way on foot.

The Oak Suite is located on the North side of the stadium with the nearest underground station being Arsenal (Piccadilly Line). Both Finsbury Park (Victoria and Piccadilly line) and Highbury and Islington (Victoria and North London Line) are served by National Rail and are only a 10 minute walk to Emirates.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01353 616100 E-mail: info@netcomsshow.co.uk Web: www.netcomsshow.co.uk

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EVENTS

MAKING SYSTEM SELECTION SIMPLE Land Registry’s software project comes under the spotlight at Softworld, 19-20 October SOFTWORLD AUTUMN 2010 is the only exhibition where you can discuss your business needs with leading providers of accounting and finance systems. At the event, taking place 19-20 October at ExCeL London, you will also benefit from an independent masterclass programme designed to guide you through the selection and implementation process and keep you up to date on the latest reporting regulations. It offers you everything you need to make a fully informed decision on which system is right for your business.

MASTERCLASSES The Softworld Accounting and Finance Solutions Masterclass programme is designed to help you make informed decisions on the show floor and back at the office. All sessions are free to attend and offer practical advice on selecting your software and managing the implementation project. The expert speakers will update you on the latest technology developments driving efficiency and effectiveness in the finance function as well as all the upcoming legislation and reporting regulations to be aware of.

At this year’s Softworld exhibition, visitors from government organisations will be able to hear how one of their peers has successfully implemented new software that has significantly improved productivity.

Debbie Wilkinson, head of Financial Accounting at the Land Registry will be sharing her experience and best practice in a free 45-minute masterclass session. Prior to joining the Land Registry Debbie worked as director of Finance at the Government Car and Despatch Agency and has a great understanding of the pressures and demands of working on government IT projects.

The session offers practical advice based on the Land Registry’s successful implementation of document archiving and optical character recognition technology, which has improved invoice processing productivity by 80 per cent. Debbie will also explain the specific challenges the Land Registry faced as a non-ministerial government department carrying out a major software project.

Dennis Keeling, chief executive, SoftComparison.Com, will host a masterclass on ‘A new approach to selecting the right system’. He will explain the changes in the software market – from local-server based systems to modern web-based online systems. Having advised some of the largest

companies in the world on business software selection he will be outlining the most common pitfalls in the selection process.

Richard Anning, head of IT Faculty, Technical Strategy Department, ICAEW, will discuss ‘Cloud computing: Lessons learned’. As cloud computing moves mainstream and more organisations are transferring their applications out into the cloud, this session will review what lessons have been learned by hearing from end users who have made the move: what went well for them, what was more difficult and what advice would they give to colleagues who have not yet made the transition.

During a session entitled ‘How accountants can use and abuse social media’, Mark Lee, Chairman, Tax Advice Network will introduce the concept of online social networking and explain the pros and cons for accountants. With his popular practical, commercial and pragmatic style Mark will cover what online social networking is and how relevant is it to accountants, and what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to marketing accountants on social media.

EXHIBITORS Which suppliers should government organisations look out for at the exhibition?

Dennis Keeling of SoftComparison.Com says: “Government IT projects face some very stringent challenges with IT cutbacks and the move to shared service centres. Fortunately many of the software suppliers at Softworld have worked on major implementations for both local and central government organisations and understand the process very well. I’ll be on hand to help you identify which vendors are right for you and the all important questions you should ask them.”

Visit Dennis on stand 136 where he will be offering free consultation and independent advice. He will also be delivering his ever popular system selection masterclass at 10:30 on both days of the event. The session features essential advice on: defining your requirements; understanding the different vendors in the business software marketplace; selecting the most suitable solution and common pitfalls to avoid.

FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information and to register free of charge visit www.softworld.co.uk

Debbie Wilkinson, Land Registry

EXHITIORS INCLUDE • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Access Select Access UK Ltd Action File AlphaGen Ltd Amethyst Aramco Overseas Company Bond TeamSpirit Carval Cascade Ceridian CFMS CIBER UK COA Solutions Ltd CodeStone Conexa Deltek | Maconomy DK Software Epaccsys Frontier Software ICAEW IT Faculty Imtech ICT InfoCat Institute of Payroll Professionals IRIS Enterprise Software Ltd Lake Financial Systems Meridian NorthgateArinso Payroll World Perceptive Software Ltd Prerogative Pyramid HR Limited QISoft Ltd Safe Computing Sage HR and Payroll Sage UK Ltd Sapphire Systems PLC SoftComparison.Com UNIT4 Version One Ltd Williams Woodward

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Government Technology | Volume 9.6

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EVENTS

MAKING YOUR ICT BUDGET GO FURTHER Find out how ICT can facilitate cost savings and business transformation while improving frontline services at Public Sector ICT 2010

Public Sector ICT 2010, taking place 3-4 November at Shendish Manor, Hertfordshire is a learning and networking event dedicated to promoting ICT as the turnkey for cost savings and business transformation in the public sector ARE YOU ONE OF THE SENIOR public sector ICT professionals who has been tasked with cutting your share of £95 million from government IT spend in 2010-2011, as part of the coalition’s pledge to cut £6.2 billion overall from the public purse?

The government agenda also demands that you demonstrate improvements to your frontline public service delivery, increase your citizen engagement levels and free up citizen access to public information. You know that the only way you can achieve all of this at the same time is to identify and implement costefficiencies throughout your back office.

You also know that ICT itself, through many of the emergent communication technologies in particular, has the potential to help you deliver some of these efficiencies, as well as your share of the desired £170 million overall cut in expenditure on public sector property. But where on earth does all of this leave you and your ICT projects right now?

Public Sector ICT 2010, taking place 3-4 November at Shendish Manor, Hertfordshire

is a learning and networking event dedicated to promoting ICT as the turnkey for cost savings and business transformation in the public sector. The event aims to help you reduce your cost base while improving frontline public services.

PSICT 2010 has been designed for senior decision makers in public sector ICT, who are seeking to implement new solutions for the first time to achieve cost-efficiencies or upgrade their existing solutions to modernise. The conference programme has been specifically designed as a cutting edge forum for those organisations that are planning live projects or upgrades within the next 3-18 months.

WHY ATTEND? At the heart of PSICT 2010 is a two-day conference programme comprised of strategic keynote speeches, as well as two distinct workshop streams. One of these will analyse efficiency strategies for turbulent times, and the other will examine cost-saving

technology implementations and solutions.

The panel of expert speakers will examine the major strategic, implementation and technology issues, and uncover best practice and leading edge transformation projects to tackle the key challenges that public sector ICT professionals are facing in 2010.

The programme has been researched with senior practitioners, experts and leading solution providers. From this in-depth research, the organisers have isolated the key challenges in the current climate and have developed a programme that addresses these.

All sessions are entirely practitionerled, meaning you will hear real life case studies of the challenges and benefits of technology implementations. A combination of streamed sessions and plenary keynotes allows you to customise your agenda to maximise your learning and development around your own business challenges.

To enhance your learning and networking experience at PSICT you can attend 30-minute one-to-one consultation meetings with those solution providers that offer the technologies and services involved in the conference case studies and have experience of operating similar projects. These consultation meetings are arranged by mutual selection and can save you months of work on your purchasing decisions, because you will meet several hardware and software suppliers in one place, over the course of the two days.

BY QUALIFICATION ONLY Because PSICT 2010 is designed to enable senior public sector ICT managers to learn from each other’s experience the event organisers apply strict qualification criteria.

This ensures all delegates are of a similar level of seniority, experience and responsibility. In order to qualify you will need to be playing a key role in implementing ICT projects in your government organisation.

To register for your free place at this event please see www. www.psict.co.uk.

Shendish Manor is a splendid Victorian Manor House set in 160 acres of parkland and formal gardens in beautiful Hertfordshire countryside. The hotel has excellent facilities including an 18-hole golf course that can be used by anyone staying in the hotel.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: www.psict.co.uk

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ADVERTISERS INDEX The publishers accept no responsibility for errors or omissions in this free service 360째IT

88

G4 Modular Power Solutions

44

Phoenix Software

36

Alternative Logic

43

Genie DB

66

Plantronics

18

Beyond 2010

94

Green IT Expo

58

Redstor

46

BlueBox Worldwide

89

In Technology

72

Sage HR & Payroll

98

Business Systems (UK)

82

IP UserGroup

84

Secure Passage

23

Call Centre & Customer Management Expo

92

iQuate

34

Softworld

Callscripter

81

ISV Software

12

Solarvista Software

40

Certero

56

Itopia Consulting

48

St Ives

14

Cherwell Software

38

Jabra

80

Tutor Pro

81

Clement Clarke Communications

60

Kodak

4

Commvault

50

Magic Software Enterprises UK

42

txttools

70

Condico Mobile

40

Millennia Computer Services

52

Varlink

40

CRYPTOCard

18

MLL Telecom

27

Verizon UK

Due North

64

MTI Technology

54

Verridian

82

MXI Security

16

VMware

OBC

EMC

102

2

Twinhead International Corporation

100

IBC

8

Enertec Energy

63

NEC

78

Vodafone UK

12

Equanet

10

Netcoms

96

World of Learning

90

Field Service Management

43

NSR Management

32

Xerox (UK)

20

Freethatinfo.com

19

Oliverdi

Frontier Software

98

Online Info

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